The War of the Wizards
by Tutankhamunfreak
Summary: Darren goes to Hogwarts to form an alliance with the wizards. Steve has joined Voldemort but things are never as they seem. Will Darren ever be able to come to term with being the Lord of the Shadows? Please R&R! Now rated T cos of gore... FIRST STORY GUYS. GO EASY ON IT.
1. You're sending me to school!

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to either Darren Shan or J.K. Rowling.**

**Sorry if this is confusing but basically in this Darren was never a little person but instead became the lord of the shadows (without killing the world) and Steve is still alive. Darren is living with Evanna and is unsure about returning to the clan as he is now different to them (in story) but the vampires need to make an alliance with the vampires as Steve has joined Voldemort to try and get his own back on Darren. Evanna agrees to send Darren to Hogwarts to help him recover from fighting Steve and becoming the Lord of the Shadows (plus all the other stuff like learning Mr tiny is his dad.)**

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Chapter 1: you're sending me to school!

Darren's POV

All the stupid stuff I'd done in my life. Yeah that all comes crashing back to you in the Lake of Souls. Except it makes them ten times worse. I didn't want to be the Lord of the Shadows. I wasn't going to be the monster of prophecy. But that was kind of hard. Especially since I had become a lot more sensitive to the smell of blood. Just mentioning it made me hungry. And it wasn't like I hadn't made mistakes with this either. Fangs. A problem that I had thought I would get but had turned out to be legend. Now it was me. And I hated it. I hated myself.

Evanna came to join me outside the cave. We had done a lot of moving around lately. Especially when I mucked up. I found myself feeding a lot more often to stop them from happening. I didn't know whether or not Evanna approved of this but she never said anything.

"Do you mind if I join you?" she asked. I just shrugged. We were staying in this cave because I had done it again. It was really bugging me that I couldn't control myself. I didn't really like talking any more.

"I thought you might like to know where we're going," she said quietly. Evanna had left me alone all day. I wasn't sure whether she was more worried about me or whether or not I was going to be seen. I hadn't been bothered. Let the Vampaneze come. What did it matter now? The War was over and I was a monster. Man my life is messed up.

"Where?" was all I said. I didn't really care to be honest. I was more interested in being depressed than anything else.

"Hogwarts," was all she said. I stared at her. Was it just me or had she sounded guilty? I wasn't sure.

"Hogwarts?" I asked interested now.

"Yes. It's a school for wizards and witches. I thought you might want to go there as you might make friends. And you need allies." She looked straight ahead. I didn't know how to feel. I thought that I should be mad. She was sending me to a school! And one where I was probably going to be stared at like an animal in a zoo! But what she had said after…

"What do you mean?" I asked bewildered.

"Mr Tiny. He's supporting a wizard called Tom Riddle but he calls himself Voldemort. He's almost unbeatable," she answered. Then she looked at me. "I thought you would be angry that I'm sending you to school."

"I kind of am and not. I am because you did it without asking me and they'll probably treat me like an animal in a zoo. And because I won't know what the hell anyone is talking about. But I'm not because you did it with the good of the clan in mind. And I think that you did it because you want me to stop moping around." I didn't look at her. I wasn't sure how she would react but I meant all the things I said. This was weird because the bad things definitely outweighed the good. But then again they normally did.

"Your right. But you'll be posing as the prince of all of the vampires. They seem to think that there's a king." Evanna seemed amused by the idea of a vampire king. And so was I but it did kind of make sense. If there are princes then why shouldn't there be a king? If only they knew…

"Hmmm… That's the first time I've seen you smile in a week," Evanna grinned at me.

I laughed at her statement even though I knew it was true. "Well maybe it won't be that bad… But really? A school? And you make me look like a stuck up snob? What's that all about?" I hadn't realised how angry I actually was. But I sounded sort of normal not like I had in the past weeks. Weird.

Evanna laughed as well. "Well I can't let you have all the fun. Don't worry I'm going as well." She smiled.

"You are?"

"Yes. I'm teaching the students the truth about vampires. Well… most of the truth." I grinned. Of course she wasn't going to tell them all about the real leaders of the vampires.

Maybe this wasn't going to be so bad after all…


	2. The Prince arrives

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters.

Chapter 2: The Prince arrives.

McGonagall's POV

I hated greeting pupils outside when it was cold. It might seem strange considering I spent many hours spying on people in cat form but I really did. And it didn't help that I was waiting for the vampire King's son to arrive with the new professor. And Snape was there. It was bad enough without him being there to annoy me. I really couldn't stand that man.

"When is the brat meant to be getting here?" he growled. It appeared that Snape was enjoying this as much as I was. Good.

"I really wouldn't talk like that in front of his highness. You may just be killed off right where you stand," came a female voice from behind us. I froze. How had they sneaked up on us? And at such an inconvenient time. Why couldn't Voldemort have stayed dead? Or disappeared. Or whatever he had been before the triwizard tournament.

"Ah. You must be the new professor Evanna. So glad to meet you" I said glaring at Snape. Why couldn't he keep his opinions to himself?

"Yes thank you. I am Evanna. And this is the Prince," the woman said and she stepped into the light beckoning to a figure behind her. It was shorter than her tall frame and I couldn't see much of him as he was wearing a long black cloak. The figure stared at her for a moment then wandered, if a bit cautiously, into the light of the moon. I was surprised to see that he didn't look too old from what I could see of his face which I had to say was not very much.

Evanna didn't bother to wait for us to show her the way. When she was sure that the Prince was following she strode off towards the castle as if she had been there before.

"Wait. You don't know the way to the Headmasters office!" I squeaked slightly unnerved by this woman's demeanour. Snape hadn't said a word and I thought that he probably had his chin scraping the floor. The woman was stunningly beautiful with long black hair and a green and brown eye. He did really only like the odd women.

"I'm sure we will be fine. Unless his highness would like to know how to get around your rather large school," Evanna said raising an eyebrow at the Prince.

"That would be very nice thank you," he said in answer to her comment. It was almost as if he wanted to prove her wrong. Or maybe he was just being the rebellious young youth you normally saw nowadays. But the way he had said it made him sound very uncertain about what he was saying. Maybe he was overwhelmed by the size of the school? Or just nervous about being around humans? He was a vampire after all.

"This way," I said quietly, happy to put some distance between me and the strange boy and woman. I wondered if this was how they treated all the new people they met.

Leading them away from the Forbidden Forest I took them into the main hall. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the Prince admiring the ceilings but as soon as I even turned my head he was suddenly looking at something else. He had probably been taught to not let anyone know what he was really thinking. As we wandered through the corridors I explained a little about the school's history. I left out the bits about Voldemort but I was pretty sure that he knew this already.

We finally came to the entrance of Dumbledore's office I felt my ears go pink. "Sherbet Lemon," I told the gargoyle. The Prince looked at me oddly probably wondering if I was sane. I wondered that often about Albus too at times.

The gargoyle jumped out of the way to let us in and I ushered them up the stairs. Strangely Snape was still with us. I had a feeling he just wanted an excuse to stare at the woman and it was really rather annoying. Hadn't he learned from the last time? Apparently not.

When we reached the top of the stairs I silently let them in. the Prince blinked at the amount of moving pictures but made no comment. Evanna didn't react at all. Albus looked up from his work and nodded at me and Snape. It was time for us to leave. I hoped that he would be fine in an office alone with a vampire and who knows what Evanna was.

I closed the door behind me.


	3. I meet the oldest guy on Earth

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

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Chapter 3: I meet the oldest guy on earth (not including Seba or Paris)

Darren's POV

I was kind of really confused. Did the clan know what we were doing? Did they approve? Did they know what I was? Who knew. I just hoped Evanna knew what she was doing, letting me loose with all those kids that were arriving tomorrow. Those oh so human kids that I would probably want to drink from. I couldn't let the thirst get hold of me. Especially not here.

"Come in, come in," the old guy behind the desk said as soon as those weird teachers had gone. I had liked the woman in the front. Well sort of. She was probably normally very strict but I wasn't sure. But the other guy I had instantly disliked. He had spent the entire trip here staring at Evanna as if she was a super modal. Ok so she had a pretty face on but if he knew what she really looked like he would be running for the hills. So I was keeping a _very_ close eye on him.

"Sit down. You must be tired from your long travels," the old guy said. Hah. Fat chance of that when your half-sister can just make a portal to wherever you want to go. It had been kind of funny to see the witch jump though. And the look on that guy's face… _Concentrate_ I thought to myself.

"Thank you," I said in a much more convincing voice to him than I had used on the teacher. Well you would be kind of overwhelmed when the biggest thing you've had to live in was a mountain.

I took the chair opposite him and tried not to look impatient. I hated the charade I had to keep up and I really was not that good at acting. The only times I had had to act was for short periods of time not whole terms of school years. This could be a very tedious year.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am the headmaster of this school. I bid you a happy welcome to Hogwarts even though the world may be far from happy. Now I understand that you are at war as well?" He said.

I sighed. I just wanted this over with. _And anyway_ I thought_ it's none of his business_. Out loud all I said was "Yes. Your enemies have joined with ours and the only way to survive is to unite our forces with your own. My father sent me here to negotiate terms and to learn about your people." I thought it sounded good and Evanna raised an impressed eyebrow. Ok so I didn't spend the entire journey wallowing in sorrow for myself. I did think about what I was going to say to people as well sometimes.

"Oh. This is a development that I didn't know about but thank you for that. You will indeed be learning about our people and in return your protector has agreed to teach the students about yours. The truth is what she said yes?" the old guy-Albus Dumbledore- turned to Evanna. Protector? When had she said that? Probably when she was talking to them about me.

"That is correct." Evanna went back to being quiet in her corner. I didn't mind but Dumbledore frowned._ Get used to it_ I thought. He really didn't know much about us but he looked like Paris. Quiet, thoughtful and old. Very old. I wondered how old he really was.

"Where will I be sleeping?" I asked drawing his attention away from my half-sister. She looked sort of thankful. I knew she hated being in that form and I wanted this over as quickly as I did.

"In the dormitory of the house you will be sorted into," Dumbledore replied smiling down at me. I wasn't so sure that that was such a good idea.

"And what of blood. I need human blood to survive and you seem to have many students at your disposal." I hated sounding like a stuck up jerk but this had to go along. This was the really important bit.

"We shall provide you with all the blood you need. And if you could leave the students alone we will get along nicely." Dumbledore's smile looked slightly strained. I felt bad about that but tried not to show it.

"What lessons must I go to?" I asked to fill the growing silence. This seemed an appropriate question. I had no issues going to school again so long as I didn't have to do any of the work. Or anything really. There were better things to be doing other than watching some lesson that I had no part in.

"You will only have to attend the classes you wish to go to. But are you sure that you will be able to travel around the school during the day?" Dumbledore asked. Did he have a brain of lead or had he just asked the thing I thought he had? Will I be able to move around in sunlight? Well what had I been doing all day? Crawling?

Fixing him with a hard glare I said tightly, "I am only a half-vampire and so can move freely during the day. Does that answer your question or would you like to know what happened to my mother?" I put in the right amount of anger a Prince would have. There was no way that I wasn't offended by that!

"Ah my mistake. Is that all?" he asked. He looked slightly guilty which made me feel sorry for him but there was no backing out now. Standing and with an air of indifference I walked out of the door of his study. There I waited for Evanna who wasn't long behind me.

"Well. That went well," she said in the silence. I smiled at her and pulled back the hood of my cloak. I hadn't taken it down all the while we had been here. I didn't want people to know what I looked like. People would probably put it down to the dislike of sunlight vampires supposedly had and I wanted it to stay that way.

Evanna led the way to where we were staying for tonight. I didn't think that any of the teachers knew that this was going to be a sad night for us. Tomorrow I was going to be sleeping in a different part of the castle and struggling to cope with an undying thirst for blood.


	4. A train conversation about odd people

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Yes I know. It's a miracle! They've finally made it even though it took them four chapters! The golden trio have gotten here!**

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Chapter 4: A train conversation about odd people.

I looked around King's Cross hoping to spot some sign of Ron or Hermione or any of the Weasley's really. It was half past ten and we were meant to meet here before going on to platform 9 ¾ for our fifth year at Hogwarts. Finally, ten minutes later, they turned up.

"What took you so long?" I asked as we walked through the barrier onto the platform.

"Oh, Ginny forgot her cauldron and Fred and George got caught trying to smuggle out Weasley's wizard Wheezes," Hermione said.

"Did they bring any? I saw what they did to Dudley which was pretty funny," I said. Although Ron's family had come to get me Uncle Vernon had kind of locked me out of the living room after Dudley's 'accident' with the sweets. I'd barely gotten away with not being locked in my room for the rest of summer.

"Hell yeah! And guess what dad heard at the Ministry!" Ron yelled as he tried to shove his trunk onto the train.

"What?" I asked as I tried to pull my trunk into our compartment.

"There's going to be a vampire at Hogwarts and the new professor of Defence against the Dark Arts is a mage!" he said excitedly as he helped me with my trunk.

Hermione gasped and said, "They can't do that! Vampires are meant to be really dangerous and no-one's heard of a mage for hundreds of years!"

"Yeah that's why Dad was so worried last night. He said that mages only taught when we were at war with someone. You don't think that they've come about Voldemort do you?" Ron said as we finally heaved Hermione's trunk into the compartment.

I flopped down on to the seat by the window. "I don't know," I said, looking at the students who hadn't got on the train yet. I didn't like the sound of this. If these people were coming back then what had happened last year was worse than we had first thought.

"What's a mage anyway?" Ron asked. "I know that they're meant to be really rare but what are they really?"

"Their wizards or witches who aren't fully human so they are born with the knowledge of how to use magic. That's why they don't use wands because they don't need one. That's why they're so rare," Hermione replied.

"How many of them of them are there in the world? And how can they not be fully human?" Ron frowned. He looked as confused as I was.

"No-one knows how many there are but one of their parents are normally something like a dragon or such. I'm not sure, but most of them are only half-human." Hermione seemed to be having a hard time answering all of Ron's questions.

"Who would have a kid with a dragon? And-"

"Ron! I don't know everything all right! No-one really knows much about mages cos their so secretive!" Hermione yelled, throwing up her hands. She looked pretty annoyed. Suddenly a whistle blew and the train started to move. We all waved at Mr and Mrs Weasley as the train passed them.

Sitting back down I frowned and said, "So how comes Hagrid's not a mage? He is only half-human. His mum was a giant."

"I think it's because giants are basically very big humans so it doesn't make much difference other than him being taller than us," Hermione said helpfully.

"Oh." I thought about that. It seemed kind of wrong that they would discriminate giants like that. It wasn't as if everyone had a giant as their next door neighbour. But it was kind of true that they were only large humans.

"So are mages friendly with vampires or something?" Ron said, "Or is it just coincidence that they're at school at the same time?"

"I'm not sure but why would they even let a vampire in? They drink human blood for goodness sake!" Hermione said.

"Oh I forgot to mention that the vampire is a prince," Ron said.

"What?" I asked, staring at him.

"Yeah, he's the prince of all vampires apparently. I think that's why Dad was so worried cos there's been talk in the ministry that their at war too but no-one knows who with," Ron answered. At that moment Luna, Ginny and Neville walked in.

"What are you talking about?" Neville asked.

"Probably the vampire who's coming to Hogwarts," Ginny said as she sat next to Hermione.

"V-vampire?" Neville said, going pale. I and Hermione sat in silence as Ginny and Ron explained what Mr Weasley had found out about our guest this year.

"Well if fang face tries to bite any of us we'll teach him a lesson won't we?" Ginny said to finish probably to calm down Neville who had now turned green with fear.

Oddly enough I didn't think that they would get very far in teaching him a lesson. It looked as if this was going to be an interesting year.


	5. I get sorted by a hundred year old hat

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Soz for the delay earlier but I had loads of homework and I kept forgetting. Hope you enjoy these chapters and don't diss my maths if I've got the adding wrong!**

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Chapter 5: I get sorted by a hundred year old hat

Darrens POV

I shifted nervously at my place at the top of the marble steps as I watched the students filing into the Great hall. It was bad enough that I had to eat and sleep with these kids but to be sorted in front of them? And even after I had had blood I was still thirsty (sometimes I really loved my half-sister especially when she thinks of things that I forget). So did the teachers want these kids to die or what?

I noticed that a bunch of kids had been stopped in the Entrance Hall. They all looked petrified and were shifting uncomfortably, a bit like me but much noisier. They were probably first years but their only problem was what house they were going to be in. Mine was much more complicated and I had quite a few problems not that they knew that. Not a lot of people did.

Finally one of the teachers who had greeted me last night (the supposedly helpful old woman in green robes) came out and led the kids into the Great Hall. Curious, I watched her lead them up between four trestle tables packed with students (crap. Was I going to have to do that?) and make them wait before the high table. All the teachers were there, even Evanna who was gaining the most attention. I had a funny feeling that there were already rumours about me and her spreading around already. What was it going to be like tomorrow?

The woman came back with an aged hat. I raised an eyebrow. Was that it? All you had to do was put on some mangy old hat that would sort you into a house? What kind of sorting was that? I tutted (which is something I don't often do. This was kind of lame). There went my dreams of this being an interesting year. I made a mental note that the next time I saw Evanna I was going to kill her. Interesting year? Yeah right starting with a god knows how old hat.

One by one she called the kids up and put the hat on their heads. Each time it shouted out one of the houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin. I was surprised to find that this didn't shock me but then again I had spent the last two years with Evanna. If that wasn't weird then I wanted to know what was. Eventually thought they were all sorted into houses. Another jolt of nerves hit me. What if they saw through me? What if I screwed up big time?

'Stop this' I told myself. 'You've been through worse than putting on a shouting hat.'

Dumbledore clapped his hands and stood up. I quietly slipped down the stairs while he talked to the students. Probably announcing me though why it had taken me so long to notice that he was actually at the table I had no idea. Just as I reached the doors they flew open. It took every ounce of my willpower not to flinch or even yell as every pair of eyes in the hall turned to look at me. Steeling myself against my nerves I strode into the hall as if I had no care for people 'under me'. A whirl of muttering followed me up the hall while some of them looked pale and nervous. I couldn't blame them but then again it was their fault if they got me mad. But for the other reason I would have taken all the blame and probably ran away. Hopefully _that_ wasn't going to happen.

When I reached the high table I stopped and glared at them. Only Dumbledore seemed to get what my glare meant (I thought wizards were smart?). He bowed. The other teachers hesitated then followed suit. Only Evanna didn't (yeah like she was actually going to make me feel special. That was _so_ not in Evanna's nature). I raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. Then I bowed Elizabethan style. Ok so I didn't like looking like a snob but I liked to put on a good show even though I wasn't even at the Cirque. Although thinking about the Cirque sent a stab of grief through my heart_. _

"The Prince will be staying in whichever house he is placed in and may attend some of the fifth year's lessons. He will not harm any of you if you do not provoke him," Dumbledore said when I came up. I almost laughed. The way he said it made it sound as if I was an alien from another planet.

The teacher from earlier came forward with the hat and put it on my head. Once again I had to physically stop myself from jumping as the hat started to _talk_ to me in my head.

"Well well well what do we have here? A vampire I see and a Vampire Prince too! Oh and some darkness, quite a lot of darkness I see. But where to put you?" it said.

"Not in the house for dark wizards" I growled at it. That was a part of me that it should not have gone to unless it wanted to be stuffed in a shredder and chucked in a dustbin.

"No? Shame. It would have suited you considering the performance your putting on. Oh well if you're sure than I suppose it must be… GERYFFINDOR!" the table centre right groaned. All the kids there wore red and gold emblems. The hat was taken off my head and the teacher pointed to that table. Yey. A whole bunch of kids who hated me. Great year this was going to be.

I walked over to the table and all the kids shuffled up to make room. I didn't comment. I wasn't in any kind of mood to make friends especially after that reception. And that mention of darkness had ticked me off. What did it matter that my dad had made me the most evil thing on earth? I'm sure it thought that that wasn't a stupid place to go if it had really looked in my head. Better to stay quiet and seethe to myself rather than bite someone's head off (metaphorically of course).

"Now that our guest has been sorted let the feast… begin!" Dumbledore shouted. He then sat down. The first years stared as a feast appeared in front of them. Well, duh. This was a magic school and it was kind of hard to have a feast without the food. It didn't take that much brainwork to work it out.

I ignored the stares I got from the students as I tucked into my own meal. It was going to be a long night and I was starving. Better to have a full stomach to face my fellow housemates than an empty one. They eventually they turned away and ignored me. But the good thing about being ignored is that no one notices when you eavesdrop on them. There was a loud jumble of varied complaints but somehow I found myself listening to a conversation between two boys and a girl about four people down from where I was sitting. The girl had bushy brown hair while the first boy had ginger hair and more freckles than I thought were possible on someone's face. The other boy had messy jet-black hair and green eyes. Like everyone else they were talking about me but surprisingly not complaining.

"I wonder why the hat put him in Gryffindor?" the girl was saying, "it doesn't usually put people in a house without a reason."

"Yeah but I still think he would fit right in with Malfoy," the red-head muttered as he piled potatoes on his plate. I hoped that I would not have to share a dormitory with him.

"Ron! You don't even know him!" the girl exclaimed. She sounded shocked. I wasn't. The same thing was being said up and down the table but it was a nice change to some of the _other_ things being said.

The red-head -Ron- just shrugged and carried on eating. It was the black-haired boy who broke their silence.

"Why do you think he's come?" he said quietly

"To suck our blood?" Ron said through a mouthful of steak probably trying to be helpful. I tried not to wince. That was a subject that I hadn't wanted to hear. Especially in a room packed full of humans.

"Ron will you stop assuming stuff! I think it's about You-Know-Who otherwise the ministry would never have let him in," the girl said. I vaguely wondered who You-know-who was. The black-haired boy nodded in agreement.

"I'm with Hermione. I don't think they would let a vampire in unless it was to protect us. And there may be something he can tell us about Voldemort's plans," he said. I noted that the Ron looked pained. So that's who You-know-who was. The guy Steve had supposedly joined. Ron made no comment but just grunted probably annoyed that he had been over-ruled. Good.

"Thank you Harry," the girl said. I felt grateful to her and the black-haired kid. At least _they_ didn't think I was a blood-sucking killing machine. Not that I could say that of everyone else. This year might not be as suckish as I had first thought.


	6. I meet the vampire prince

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Please don't think that Ron hates Darren he just has a kind of aversion to vampires at the start of this. All will be explained!**

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Chapter 6: I meet the ordinary teenager who is really a vampire prince

Harry's POV

I wasn't quite sure what to make of the vampire prince. He had seemed a lot like Malfoy when he had walked into the hall but he hadn't said a word to anyone. He hadn't even been bothered by all of the groans from the kids around me. He had seemed angrier at the hat, a bit like I had been when it had said that I would do well in Slytherin.

When the feast was over and Dumbledore had given his announcements I watched him as he followed the Gryffindor's as they left the hall. For a moment he paused at the doors and glanced behind him before carrying on. I wondered why he had done it and what he had been looking at but I was too sleepy and excited to think about it for long. It was a whole new year at Hogwarts! Much more fun to be had and pranks to pull and magic to be learnt. I briefly wondered what the stunningly beautiful and enigmatic mage would be teaching us.

It was more than a bit of a shock to find Professor McGonagall waiting for us. I felt my heart sink when she walked straight towards me and beckoned me to follow her. I had learnt in my second year that following teachers alone never meant good news. She didn't lead me far just a close classroom where she turned and said,

"Professor Dumbledore has instructed that it be you and your friends that lead the vampire prince round while he is learning his way around Hogwarts. He has also said good luck for the upcoming year. The prince is to stay in your dormitory."

"But Professor-" I started but she cut me off before I could get any further.

"Professor Dumbledore made it quite clear that this is what he wanted you to do. Especially to keep away from that terrible Umbridge woman when she arrives," professor McGonagall said as she walked away. I remembered the squat ugly woman who had been at my hearing about the dementor. She was a lot more than terrible but the words that described her were definitely rude and not ones that you would use in passing conversation.

When I got in the common room the only person in there was the Prince. Everyone else had left (or more probably fled) to go to bed. I was surprised to find that he had his cloak hood down and looked less than happy to be alone but before I could get a good look at what he looked like he had pulled his hood up again and turned to glare at me. But his gaze was slightly uncertain as if he wasn't sure how long I had been there for.

"Um, hi," I said unsure how to approach this kid, "my name's Harry Potter and the, err, headmaster wants me to, um, help you."

"I do not need your help," he said, facing the fire. I wondered if he was thirsty. If so then I was in a lot of trouble.

"Professor McGonagall was pretty clear that I had to help you your highness," I said. I wasn't sure what kind of effect the 'your highness' thing would have on him but it sounded pretty good. And I had no qualms about following his suggestion that he was fine on his own. In the dark and alone with him was more than a little creepy.

"What does your Professor wish me to do with you?" the Prince asked. He sounded more than a little annoyed at me.

"She said that I was to make sure you had somewhere to sleep at night and to show you around the school until you know your way around," I said as bravely as I could with the leaping flames making a strange silhouette around the Prince's shadow. If I hadn't believed Dumbledore before then I believed him now. He would hurt anyone who got in his way. Strangely I had a feeling who would deliberately try and get in the Prince's way.

"Then show me where I am to sleep and that will be all for now," he said. He was definitely annoyed.

As I led him up the stairs into our dorm I wondered why he should be staying with us. Didn't that put us in the firing line to be the first that he would drink from? Did Dumbledore want us all to die? Or was it the other way around? I was glad that the others were in bed and snoring when we came in. My trunk was by the bed next to the one with the unfamiliar bag next to it. The Prince's. Strangely the Prince's bed was the one next to the window. But didn't vampires hate the sunlight.

"Over there," I said pointing to the bed next to mine. I was glad that Ron slept next to me. It didn't make me feel so scared about sleeping next to a vampire.

"Thank you," he said curtly. I took this to be a dismissal so I grabbed my pyjamas and headed to the loo. When I came back the Prince was already in bed. I slipped into my own and waited for sleep to come. Oddly enough it didn't and then I heard a soft rustling noise behind me. I turned over and peeking through my lashes saw the vampire prince sitting on the window seat. He was facing way out to sea as if he was longing for a place that was far far away. And for the first time I saw what he really looked like.


	7. The new Professor has an assisstant?

**Disclaimer; I own nothing.**

**Soz for the delay. My computer was playing up **_**again**_**. Well more like the internet but you get it. Anyway chapter 7!**

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Chapter 7: the new Professor has an assistant?

Harry's POV

When I woke up I realised two things. First I had no memory of what I had seen the night before and the Vampire Prince was gone. His bed was empty and left as if it had never been slept in. But I was pretty sure he was real. I had seen what he looked like but for some reason I couldn't remember. Was it because I had been tired or was there some sort of spell to make sure that no one knew what he looked like? I decided that I'd wait till tonight until I discussed this further with my friends. Best to be sure.

I pulled on my robes and waited for the others to get ready. I was used to being the first ready but it still unsettled me that the Vampire Prince wasn't here. It didn't seem right. Ron, on the other hand, didn't seem to mind.

"Good riddance," he said as we headed to the great hall. "He would have only annoyed the hell out of us." I shrugged and we carried on in silence.

Hermione was waiting for us with our timetables. We were late because Ron had overslept and I had waited for him. I noticed that I wasn't the only one who was late. The new professor wasn't here yet either. Maybe she didn't know the school routine and thought she could have her own breakfast somewhere else?

"Look we have Defence Against the Dark Arts first with the new professor! I wonder what she'll be teaching," Hermione babbled excitedly. The she seemed to realise that everyone was at the Gryffindor table except one. "Where's the Vampire Prince?" she asked, her smiling turning into a frown.

"Don't know," I said between mouthfuls of bacon, "he wasn't in the dormitory this morning and he wasn't exactly keen for any of us to help him either."

"Maybe he's left," Ron said hopefully. Both I and Hermione stared at him.

"Yes Ron I'm sure a Vampire Prince who's here to do business with Dumbledore and learn about us is really going to leave," Hermione said sarcastically. I agreed with her. It seemed odd that the guy would come in one night, get sorted and then disappear.

Before Ron could continue the argument Professor Evanna walked into the hall. And trailing behind her was a boy about our age maybe older. He was looking around him with eyes as wide as saucers. He followed the professor up the aisle and hovered uncertainly behind her chair. One of the teachers asked her something but the new Professor just glared at them and snapped something at them. Then she turned and offered the chair next to her to the boy behind her. He blushed slightly as he suddenly seemed to realise that everyone was staring at him.

"Who do you think that is?" Dean asked, leaning over to talk in a whisper to us. I shrugged. Ron looked thrown and Hermione frowned. She wasn't the only one.

"I thought everyone here had to be sorted if they were a kid?" a first year said looking scared. Hermione, for once, didn't have an answer.

"I don't know. Maybe he's a mage like the Professor…" she murmured, deep in thought. I wondered if mages did things differently when teaching younger mages than to wizards. Then I shrugged it off. We would probably find out in Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Darren's POV

I felt embarrassed. Everyone was continually staring at me and the boy who had talked to me last night was frowning up at me. I thought about Evanna's charm. She had placed it secretly on every person who shared a dorm with me after I had felt uncomfortable about people knowing who I was. We had come up with this idea the night before the sorting. If no one knew what I looked like then I could at least have some friends under a different personality. None of the other teachers had known until this morning. To the students I was posing as Evanna's assistant. I didn't even have to tell them what I was which was good because then no one had an excuse to start mentioning blood except for in Evanna's classroom.

The ordeal which was breakfast soon ended when a bell rang. There wasn't a bell but I was used to the weirdness of the castle by now. I also knew the way to Evanna's rooms from here and the Gryffindor common room. I wondered if anything would go wrong with this plan (other than potentially being found out but how anyone would do that I didn't know. Anyway I could easily kill anyone who threatened me or not depending on what they did).

All the students got up and began to leave the hall. No one was bothered by me now. They were more interested in getting out of the hall including the teachers. Half of them had already left. I slumped down in my seat.

"Glad that's over with," I muttered darkly as I had a feeling more was to come.

"Oh I think it's only just begun but you know that," Evanna said smiling down at me. She was trying not laugh as I glared at her. _If only she wasn't my sister_ I thought. _She wouldn't have lasted this long if she was human_. Evanna seemed to realise there was no point in trying to rise me out of my bad mood and stood up pointedly. I dragged myself out of the chair and followed her to her classroom. Yep there was no way that this was going to go unless I accidently leapt on a student when they cut their finger on something. Completely fool proof. Not.

There was already a large crowd of kids waiting to get in the classroom. They fell silent when we approached them. I felt my heart sink when I realised my roommates were here along with the girl from last night. This was going to be a long lesson.

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Author's Note

**This story may take a while to keep updating as I am very busy with homework and stuff. But never fear Darren Shan will get finished at some point. And Darren is not going to get killed when they find out. I think. Most probably not but you will have to wait and see! Please continue to read and rate! Thank you for all the comments so far!**


	8. A lesson on vampires

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

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Chapter 8: A lesson on vampires that goes badly for some

Darren's POV

I looked round at all the kids sitting in the classroom staring attentively at Evanna. They all looked interested at what she was going to say. All except one. A woman had entered after the kids who looked as if someone had tried to kill her with pink. She was wearing an awful pink outfit which made her look even fatter than she already was and she had a face that looked as if she had run into a wall when she was a baby and it had never gone back to normal. And she was looking very interested in Evanna's appearance and I had a funny feeling she was going to be trouble. I sat at the edge of Evanna's desk glaring at her. She hadn't even noticed me yet which was a good thing.

"Good morning. I am told that you have had numerous teachers in this class some of which were not as good as others. I will warn you now that if you don't pay attention in my classes you will be in severe trouble. Detention with me will be extremely worse than detention with even Professor Snape." Evanna stared round at all of them. They looked as unsure about sitting in this lesson as I had been to come3 to this school.

"In my lessons you will be learning about two of the main creatures of the night. The other you have done. What are the three main creatures of the night? Miss Granger!" Evanna said staring at the girl from the night before. She blushed slightly at the fact that she knew her name but answered anyway.

"There are vampires and werewolves but I didn't think that there was another one. None of the books say about another creature of the night," she said.

"That is where the books are wrong. You are correct about vampires and werewolves but the third is-"

"_Uh-hem"_

Deadly silence fell across the room. I jumped off the desk, feeling one mad witchy rage coming from Evanna. The rest of the class stared nervously at me probably hoping that I had no reason for jumping off the desk.

"What do _you_ want?" Evanna hissed her voice as deadly as the now charged atmosphere of the room.

"I was just wondering," the woman said, sounding as toady and ugly as she looked, "where you get your sources from. If the books say there are only two main types they are normally correct."

"And have you ever been through the world of the night?" Evanna growled. The woman obviously didn't realise how much danger she was in as she carried on.

"Well no but there is no obvious evidence to say otherwise than what Miss err Granger said," she said.

"And yet you think you know better than someone who has interacted with these people? Who do you even think you are?" Evanna practically shouted wind blowing through the room even though the windows were shut. I looked around the room and noticed that the chair the woman was sitting on had a loose leg. I pulled a pebble from the top of Evanna's desk and slid it down the room to her chair. It hit the leg perfectly. Meanwhile the woman had been answering Evanna's question.

"I am Dolores Jane Umbridge and I have- Wha- Argghhh!" the woman shrieked as the chair toppled and fell. I nodded. A job well done. An angry ugly toad was better than an angry Evanna.

"Thank you," Evanna said to the class even though she probably knew that it was me. "Now as I was saying the third is the Vampaneze and the reason why they are not in books is because they are classed as vampires. Now what do you know of vampires?" The woman- Umbridge- coughed again, now back upright although no longer sitting on a chair. Evanna ignored her.

Several hands shot up in the air. Evanna chose them one of them and then another. I tried not to laugh at some of their answers. A boy at the back of the classroom with hair that was so blond it was almost white said,

"Vampires turn into bats when they want to fly to places."

The girl next to him said, "Vampires have fangs and bite people when they want to drink blood." The only person who got something right was the girl with bush brown hair.

"Vampires drink human blood but can drink animal blood too," she said when she was picked. She was also picked last.

"Thank you all although the only person who got something right was Miss Granger," Evanna said. "Vampires cannot turn into bats nor do they have fangs. Garlic, holy water and crosses won't harm them. And I hope you are all making notes including you Mr Finnegan. And chewing gum is not permitted in the class and it is equally disgusting to stick it under your desk." The boy in question looked devastated that he had been found out.

The Granger girl had her hand in the air. Evanna ignored her as she was ignoring Umbridge who was still coughing. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

"Excuse me," I said surprising the class and Umbridge. "Are you choking or something because if so you really should see a doctor or just leave. There is a lesson going on you know." Umbridge looked shocked that I had spoken to her.

"And who are you?" she snapped, trying to regain her composure. I rolled my eyes and glared at her.

"He is my assistant," Evanna said evenly.

"And what exactly is he? A muggle? A wizard?" she asked glaring at Evanna. Evanna looked at me questioningly. I nodded. They might as well know now.

"He is a vampire," Evanna said crisply. A loud murmuring went round the classroom. "He is here to help me as he has done these past ten years since he was placed in my care." I tried not to laugh. I don't think Evanna would have been able to put up with me that long.

"Oh," she said looking at me uncertainly. I resisted the urge to bear my newly found fangs at her.

"Goodbye," I said looking pointedly at the door. She left and the rest of the lesson carried on. The kids wrote furiously and none of them tried to backtalk Evanna. Not while I was sitting in the same room as them. I was the vampire they had no idea about. I could kill them if I wanted (and some of them I did like the kid with almost-white hair). At the end of the lesson everyone got up and left in such a hurry there was time for me and Evanna to talk.

"You should go change. They will be wondering where their Prince is," Evanna said as she tidied the chairs.

"Can't I-" I started to protest.

"No," she said. "If you spend the whole day as my assistant then people will start to put two and two together.2 I thought about that. She was right. I sighed and dragged myself off to the dorm. The rest of the day was going to be as boring as three hours of English on a Friday afternoon.


	9. what the hell just happened!

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

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Chapter 9: What the hell just happened?

Harry's POV

I glanced behind me to where the Vampire Prince was for the third time in a row. He was sitting in the corner of the common room reading a book. I couldn't make out what the title was but I didn't want to find out. Ron and Hermione were still talking about the Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson and the Professor who taught it. Or, more accurately, her assistant.

"I really think that they should warn us," Hermione was saying, "Vampires are really dangerous."

"Yeah and if your names Prince a git too," Ron said throwing the prince a black glare. He threw one equally if more deadly look back at him. No one was sitting near him even though he was sitting by the fire. In fact if he got any closer he'd be sitting in it

"Maybe he's just lonely," Hermione said quietly. I had a feeling that she had worked out for herself that Ron wasn't going to be convinced unless the prince miraculously changed character.

"But the vampire in our lesson didn't seem that bad," I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the prince look up slightly at that. Was he actually listening to us?

"Yeah he seems all right. I guess he just doesn't know how stuck up the rest of his race can be," Ron said. I noticed the vampire visibly flinch. He was definitely listening in.

"He's listening to us," I whispered. Ron looked at me blankly but Hermione paled.

"What?" he asked staring at me.

"He's listening to us," I said only fractionally louder. I didn't want him to know that we knew. Apparently Ron didn't agree with me.

"Hey, didn't anyone tell you it's rude to listen in on people's conversation?" Ron yelled twisting round to glare at him. The prince looked up then seemed to decide that he wasn't worth it and got up. He walked through the now silent common room and headed to the dormitory. As soon as he was gone people started to talk again. Some even congratulated Ron on his bravery. I was the only one who noticed the shadow standing just inside the dormitory stairs. He was still listening.

"I'm going to bed," I told Hermione. She nodded and said,

"I think I will too. I wouldn't want to be in Ron's shoes in the morning. What do you think he will do to him?"

"I don't think he's as big a jerk as everyone thinks he is," I said glancing over to the dormitory steps. The shadow was gone.

"Why?" Hermione asked following my gaze.

"Because he didn't hurt Ron. And he stayed on to listen. You could see his shadow. He was only round the corner," I said. I felt sorry for him. He was far from his own familiar surroundings and he was being snubbed by all his fellow classmates. I said goodnight to Hermione and wandered up the stairs. When I reached my dorm door I was surprised to hear sounds behind it. I peeked in and was surprised to find the vampire prince… who was really Evanna's assistant. His head whipped round and stared at me and then looked away again.

"What do you want?" he asked quietly. He didn't even sound annoyed, just sad. The scars that I had seen earlier were all too clear on his face. I wondered who would do that to a kid.

"I just wondered if you were all right," I said glancing out the window. I wasn't sure how to approach him.

"Yeah and now you can go boast to your friend that the vampire prince is really just some lowly assistant to a witch," he said bitterly. I didn't know how to answer that.

"Ron's not normally like that… I guess he's just scared… or jealous…" I said uncertainly. The last time I had seen Ron like that was at the tri-wizard tournament. And even the he had gotten over it quickly. The prince just snorted.

"Yeah I bet he really want to be me. To run around in the shadows and drink human blood and have your half-brother-"he suddenly stopped and winced. I stared at him. He looked angry at himself but also in pain.

"What is it?" I asked alarmed at how abruptly he had stopped.

"Nothing," he said gasping for breath. Then he fell to the floor. I ran over to him and checked he was actually still alive. It was then that I noticed the blood leaking through his clothes. Panicking, I wondered what to do. It was then that I realised that the commotion downstairs had stopped. Then the dormitory door flew open to reveal Professor Evanna. With strength I didn't think a woman could possibly possess she picked him up and with a curt "Follow me," she left. I followed her. Everyone stared as they watched me and the Professor leave. It was only then that I noticed the Prince's blood which covered my hands.

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Author's note: Don't worry Darren is not going to die yet!


	10. An unexpected friend

**Hey so this is my first update of rewriting. My computer is all better now and so am I since I caught a cold in the middle of the week with EXAMS to do. Trust me felling like crap while sitting a Physics GCSE is not actually fun. But anyway I hope you like this!**

**By the way has anyone noticed how cheesy my chapter 4 is? That should be rated T for just plain cheesiness!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darren Shan although it would be awesome if I did but I still hate the movie of it! Stupid crack producers at universal if they are the people who did it or whoever made it!**

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Chapter 10: An unexpected friend

Harry's POV

Professor Evanna dragged me to her office after she had seen the Prince to the hospital wing. I wondered if she was going to erase any memory of the Prince from my mind and leave me as a dribbling freak but when we reached her office all she did was gesture for me to sit in the chair across from her desk. She then dropped into her own chair and placed her head in her hands, rubbing her forehead with the tips of her fingers.

After a while she sat upright again with a sigh and regarded me with a strange look. Part calculating, part angry and part curiosity. Eventually she spoke.

"So what do I do with you now? I can't give you detention as you haven't technically done anything wrong and I'm not supposed to cast spells on you. So how to deal with you?" I frowned.

"Is there a problem in my knowing who the Prince is Professor?" I asked.

"Not normally, no," she said, "but this time it is not my secret you know nor that of one of your petty classmates. I cannot allow you to know unless I have permission from Darren that he will allow it and the last I spoke to him of this matter he was less than happy with the idea."

"So I'm stuck here until the Prince wakes up and gives you permission?" I sneered unhappy about my friends being called petty.

"No," Professor Evanna said flatly. "You may leave here but first you are to swear by your life and the lives of your friends that you will not speak a word about this. If you cough, mutter or even sleep talk about Darren's true identity I will know and you will suffer a fate worse than death. Worse than anything that Lord Voldemort could even think of." I gulped. If anyone else had said that I would have been in stitches but this Professor was different. This professor was a mage. There was no knowing what she could do.

"Fine. I won't tell anyone," I said. Professor Evanna shook her head a glint in her eyes.

"I'm not asking for your word. I'm asking for a vow…"

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I knew I shouldn't have done it. I should never have left the common room and finished my homework with Hermione and put up with Ron's so called 'heroics'. But no, I had to decide to leave and get stuck with an unbreakable vow. Not any unbreakable vow though. A mage's unbreakable vow. Unlike the wizard's 'badly cut' version, as Professor Evanna put it, I wouldn't just die if I broke it. According to her I would be tortured until I begged for death and only then would I die in the most excruciating way. It didn't help that both Ron and Hermione wanted to know exactly what had happened. A week later, I finally had had enough of their questioning.

"Look no matter how many times you ask the story isn't going to change," I snapped, closing a copy of 'Quidditch through the Ages'. I didn't know why I was reading it but the familiar subject was soothing compared to all the weird and new stuff that was going on.

"Harry, you can't expect us to believe that you just walked in and found him that way," Ron said. "Did you see his stupid face and then he threatened to kill you if you told anyone what he really looks like?" I could almost laugh at how close and yet how far Ron was from the truth. It didn't calm me down though.

"No Ron!" I shouted. "I didn't get threatened, attacked, blackmailed or fed from and made to lie to you guys! I'm telling you the truth so now get off my back!" I no longer felt like staying in the common room and I certainly didn't want to hear whatever else Ron had to say and so I stormed out. Unwittingly my feet began to take me to the hospital wing.

I hadn't been to see the Prince yet. I wasn't sure what to say. Hey you're Evanna's assistant! Yeah… no. Besides the image of him lying on the dormitory floor, bleeding, was still etched into my mind. I didn't know if he was even still in the hospital but then again knowing Madame Pomfrey she wouldn't let him leave until he was fully healed. Plus he still hadn't returned to the dormitory so I assumed that he still was in the hospital wing, probably tied to a bed with his attitude. Whichever was real but neither seemed to like being bed ridden. I paused outside the door as I had every time before and every time before I had chickened out and left again. But this time something made me stay. Something made me push the door open. Maybe it was the memory of how sad the Prince had looked when I had found him or the image of him dangling helplessly in professor Evanna's arms looking so weak and strangely vulnerable… or maybe I was just plain mad.

The Prince was looking much better. He was lying in a mound of pillows and was strangely surrounded by notepads and various pens. Not quills actual muggle pens which were quite odd in the wizarding world. He was bare-chested, although with the amount of bandages wrapped around his torso I doubted a shirt would make any difference. He was sitting up, more leaning than lying on the pillows and scribbling furiously in one of the newer looking notepads. I noticed that the scars didn't stop at his face. Many more covered his arms and disappeared under the bandages so I felt safe enough to assume that they carried on underneath them.

The Prince suddenly seemed to become aware that he had a visitor and looked up. He blinked looking very much like a deer caught in a car's headlamps. Very much surprised. I took a deep breath and stepped forwards, allowing my feet to bring me closer to him. The Prince put the notepad and pen to one side and carried on staring at me with a mixture of growing curiosity and confusion. I found myself staring back at him. A long awkward silence stretched out before the Prince suddenly broke it.

"You were the one I was talking to!" he blurted out then blushed at how random that sounded. "You, know," he elaborated, trying to straighten it out, "when all this happened." He gestured to the bandages.

"Yeah," I managed rather weakly. "What happened?" The Prince opened his mouth for a moment, closed it, though for another long moment then said,

"No idea." His face then split into a cheeky grin that strongly reminded me of the twins.

"You don't seem to care that I know who you really are," I noted aloud. I instantly wished that I hadn't. The Prince's face fell.

"It's not that I don't care," he said slowly, "I just think that once everyone knows they'll treat me the same whether they get to know me or not. Anyway you probably don't like to lie to your friends." He turned his face away from me and I felt my stomach clench with guilt. The way he had said that… it was as if he thought that I would hate him simply because he was a vampire. He also sounded sad and yet resigned to it yet that didn't stop me from getting the feeling that he was holding back tears of frustration.

"I wouldn't have treated you like dirt and anyway I haven't had much of a choice in the matter. Your guardian threatened me with a fate worse than a slow death from Voldemort," I said. The Prince's head snapped back, his eyebrows raised.

"She made you vow not to tell anyone? What is this world coming to?" he said sounding half incredulous and half as if he wanted to laugh.

"Err…" I said intelligently, confused.

"She doesn't normally help people," he explained. "All you get is 'I can't tell you' or 'I'm neutral in this'." I nodded my head, understanding now why it seemed strange to the Prince why Professor Evanna had helped him. I thought for a moment and then asked the question that had been bugging me for a while now.

"What's your name? All I've heard people call you is the Prince or Professor Evanna's assistant or a stuck up brat by Snape." He scoffed at the one from Snape but he didn't shout at me. Instead he smiled.

"Oh," he said," my real name's Darren Shan and I am certainly not stuck up nor am I a brat unless you ask Mr Crepsley. He'll just say yes." I smiled.

"Darren," I said, trying it out. It suited him although it was such a common name that it sounded a bit strange. His smile got wider and he gave a little wave. I laughed at that and he joined in with me. He had a nice laugh. It then struck me that Darren didn't act like a prince at all. He didn't use posh language and as far as I had seen he certainly didn't have the attitude for a prince. He acted more like a normal teenager albeit one who spoke a bit like the generation before and with an appetite for human blood although I was yet to see that side to him yet.

"So how come you're here when everyone thinks that I'm a stuck up git who wants to drain them dry?" Darren said, clearly not uncomfortable about talking about what he was. What did surprise me though was the jest in his tone as if he was mocking the way everyone treated him instead of being bitter about it.

"To be honest," I said truthfully, "I have no idea. I sort of just came although this is the first time I've come and actually come in." Darren's eyes widened.

"So you're the person who keeps stopping at the door and then walking away again! I kept wondering who the hell that was!" Darren said. I laughed.

"Sorry," I said. Darren shrugged but I didn't miss the slight wince that followed the movement.

"Well you're here now and your better company than your ginger friend," he said.

"Ron's not normally like that," I said in defence of my friend although I could understand Darren's view of him. "He's just a bit edgy. He once acted like that to me because he was jealous but he came round in the end." Darren raised an eyebrow.

"Why would he be jealous of me? Or am I missing something?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I'm famous among wizards for something I can't even remember and last year my name was pulled out of the Goblet of fire so I was forced to enter the tri-wizard tournament," I explained not wanting to talk about all the bad moments. Darren just nodded sagely as if he could understand and sympathise with how I felt.

"Shoo Potter," Madame Pomfrey said, suddenly appearing out of nowhere, "this poor boy needs rest!" I raised my eyebrows at Darren and we both burst into laughter. Madame Pomfrey sighed and walked away.

"I'd better go before she comes back," I said through sniggers. Darren nodded.

"I enjoyed meeting you properly Harry," he said suddenly deadly serious. "It's nice to know that someone doesn't believe that I'm a bloodthirsty monster." I blinked unable to say anything to that. I nodded and left, slowly realising how lonely Darren was. Although I knew that I was missing great gaps in Darren's history I'd sat through enough of Professor Evanna's lessons to know that most vampires were adults. Perhaps Darren was the only child among the vampires which would explain why he spoke so strangely and why he was so lonely. Not only that but Darren seemed to hide his true self away as if it were not important at this time for people to know who he truly was. I was closer to knowing that Darren than the Darren that most people saw.

Hermione was waiting for me when I returned to the Gryffindor common room. It was mainly empty when I arrived as it was so late in the evening but I didn't care. I had found a new friend in Darren and I knew that no matter what people said about him, his trust was worth having. Even so there was still a nagging feeling in the back of the head that something about the way Darren acted didn't quite add up.


	11. Lost and recovered

**You know I was saving this until I got some reviews but guess what? I looked every week and there were no reviews! Is this new retake of the story a bad one? I just thought that it was starting to get a little… well… cheesy and out of hand. Plus my writing style changed, I didn't like where it was going and I thought that Darren seemed too depressed, plus there were too many characters in it. So I'm going to try to keep the number of characters down to stop that happening again. If you're worried that you won't get to see Larten and Vancha and the Cirque again, don't worry. They will be in here. They just won't have as much a part than the others.**

**So please, there's this little blue button at the bottom of the page which is calling out to you. It was very disheartening to see the review number just sitting there, not moving.**

**So… new chapter.**

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Chapter 11

Darren's POV

I watched Harry go a little sadly. Admittedly, I had been shocked to find him standing at the end of my bed but he had proved himself to be a decent guy. Plus the fact that he was my one and only visitor other than Evanna. It was a shame that there weren't more of him around. Then again, most decent people seemed to have hard lives and Harry was no different. I had heard his story from plenty of people around the school, whispering about how he was mad and how his parents had died. It made me angry to think that they didn't believe the least likely person to lie about Voldemort. I could empathise with Harry about losing his parents (I too had lost mine in a way) but it seemed wrong that people thought he just wanted attention. If anything, Harry seemed to want a quiet life.

With a sigh I turned back to my diary, which I had been updating when Harry had walked in, but put it down again almost straight away. I was far too distracted to carry on with it. It wasn't just Harry's story that was eating away at me.

I had been lying when I had said that I knew nothing about what had happened to me. I just hadn't been ready to share the truth just yet. It was painful as it was and anyway, I knew exactly what had happened. I had been an idiot, talking so freely about my past when I knew what would happen. To talk about my past was to mean torture for me. And it seemed the torture that had come before the transformation into the Lord of the Shadows was to also be the torture that happened when I talked about the past. Apparently my dear old father was just happy with condemning me to be a creature of hell. No he had to be able to torture me in every way possible.

I sighed again and settled down for the night. I lay down on my side since lying on my back was extremely painful at the moment. Stupid whips. I scowled at the number of pillows though and threw a couple to the floor. Much better. It took hours for me to fall asleep and, as usual, the dreams came fast, thick and horrifying.

_I was standing in the ruins of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. All around me were the dead, mutilated bodies of my classmates. I stared around, trying to comprehend what had happened here. At my feet was Harry. I couldn't bring myself to look down. Hermione and Ron were lying close by, their chests ripped open, their hands reaching out to each other as if to hold hands in their dying hour. Balling up my courage I looked down. _

_If anything, Harry was the worst. His throat had been ripped open, his stomach ripped to shreds, entrails bleeding onto the floor. But no blood. I looked up and yelped as I came face to face with a shadowy face and blood red eyes. The shadows died and I came face to face with myself. Blood dripped from the figure's fingers. I realised that he was holding a human heart. Harry's heart._

"_You cannot escape me," the shadow hissed. "This is your future. This is what you're destined to do. I am you. We shall no longer be weak. We shall rejoice at this." I stood there, feeling sick as the shadow raised Harry's heart to his lips and began to eat. Blood spilled faster through his fingers. I couldn't stop staring as it devoured the last thing of Harry left. Far off in the distance a dragon roared as the shadow laughed…_

I woke with a shout, sweat covering me from head to toe. I wrestled with the sheets covering me, trying to get free of their knots around my legs. The images from the dream stayed and refused to go away. The sweat on my body seemed much more like blood than sweat. I then realised that I _was_ bleeding. My bandages were soaked from my back. I swore a couple of times and lay back. Weak sunlight struggled through the windows of the hospital wing. It couldn't be later than six in the morning but I couldn't go back to sleep, nor could I just lie here, drenched in sweat that felt too much like the blood from my dream. I slipped out of bed and wandered to the end of the room. Madame Pomfrey was nowhere to be seen and I knew that she wouldn't come check for another hour or so yet.

I yanked the door open and stepped into the corridor. I had no idea where to go from here and no idea where I wanted to go either. I just needed to get rid of the images in my brain. Pushing back the rising hysteria from the dream and let my feet take me wherever they wanted. Eventually I came to a stop somewhere deep in the castle, probably miles away from the hospital wing, with no idea where the hell I was. It had been nearly an hour. Well, Madame Pomfrey would be pissed.

I turned in a wild circle, suddenly fully aware that I was wearing nothing but a pair of pyjama bottoms which I had been wearing in bed last night and the bandages. It would be extremely embarrassing for someone to turn up right now. I tried desperately to think of where I was but no, I was at a loss. Just as I was about to give up hope a voice behind me said,

"Darren?" I whipped around and saw harry standing there. For a moment a remembered him as I had seen him in my dream. I shook that image away and smiled at him in relief.

"Harry! Do you have any idea where we are because I have none," I said, thanking the gods of the vampires that it was Harry who had found me and not some random student. Harry was looking oddly at me and I tried not to think of how I must look considering I was drenched in dried sweat from my dream and hadn't changed in my mad dash to get away from the hospital wing.

"Yeah. Do you want to go back to the hospital wing or were you planning on wandering around like that all day?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow. I felt the colour rise in my cheeks.

"Sorry. I have no idea how I ended up here though. Must have been sleep walking," I said, trying to sound upbeat. Although I really had no idea how the hell I had managed to get here. Harry smiled knowingly and beckoned for me to follow him. I followed him, thanking him repeatedly for finding me. He laughed and said that it was the least that he could do.

When we reached the hospital wing I tuned out Madame Pomfrey's lecture on how irresponsible it was to leave the hospital wing and how things could have turned badly for me considering I had opened the wounds up again. Harry didn't seem to have noticed the blood until Madame Pomfrey forced me back into bed and fussed over them. I sent him a reassuring smile even though they hurt like hell.

When Madame Pomfrey and Harry had both left I grabbed my diary. I flipped it open but then changed my mind and grabbed an earlier one from the bedside table. I amused myself with the antics of my younger self. Sometimes it was better to think of my human years than the vampire ones. Actually there was no competition. There was no doubt that my human years were better than the vampire ones even if I had made new friends and travelled the world with the Cirque. We all have to grow up and die in the end. Except that option wasn't open to me anymore. I grimaced at that thought and buried myself in the diary again.

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By lunchtime I had managed to push away the thoughts if the present day and my dream. The food, as usual, was good but it felt lonely sitting in here with no one else. It seemed strange that only a few weeks ago I wouldn't have complained but suddenly, I wanted to sit in the Great hall and be with friends like Harry and act as if I was a normal human being. Or as normal as I could possibly be here.

"When will I be able to leave?" I asked Madame Pomfrey as she fussed over me _again_. She looked at me with surprise and then shrugged.

"Whenever you are deemed ready. Tomorrow morning most likely, considering you ran off this morning," she said a hint of annoyance clouding her tone as she spoke of the morning's events.

"Thank you," I said, trying to hide the smile that was itching at me from her tone. If anything that trip had been worth it in a lot of ways.

The next morning couldn't come quick enough. Madame Pomfrey was annoying as always, fussing over this and that as if I was a normal patient. Evanna had sent me some actual clothes for once. Jeans, a T-shirt, trainers. Strangely no jacket but I had been in colder climates before now and my vampire blood would keep me warm. When I was finally allowed out I found myself just standing there, outside, suddenly unsure of where to go. I could try to find the Gryffindor tower or go find Evanna or go get some fresh air or run through the Forbidden Forest or explore the castle… the possibilities were endless. I didn't know why I was getting so worked up about leaving. I just was.

Turning to my left, I decided to try and find Harry. At this point in time, he would either be in the great hall or in the Gryffindor common room. The only problem was that I didn't know how to get to either of them and I had gathered by now that none of the house dormitories were anywhere near the hospital wing. And anyway, Hogwarts couldn't be that big could it. I would find my way to somewhere at some point.

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I ate my words an hour later. Harry would most definitely be in the Great Hall by now and I was lost. Again. Apparently Hogwarts was that big. And there would be no harry to come and find me now. I sighed and scanned the area of corridor that I was currently in. It was covered in portraits and was about as interesting as the corridors in vampire mountain. Why was it that every time I tried to find my way around this darn place I failed at it? Everything literally looked the same. Vanez's training wasn't helping me at all. Even logical thinking didn't help in this place, not when ghosts floated by regularly (I was glad that I hadn't seen any familiar looking ghosts. That would have just topped the whole thing off and the last thing I needed was to be molested by an ethereal being which made you feel like you had been dumped in a bucket of ice cold water with every touch).

"Are you all right?" said a girl's voice behind me. I turned to see the pretty brunette girl from the first feast all those weeks ago. She was one of Harry's friends. I wondered if she had instantly been able to tell that I was lost.

"Err… yes but I am kinda lost," I said, giving her a small smile. She in turn gave me a friendly smile of her own.

"Where do you want to go?" she asked. I thought for a moment.

"The Great Hall," I decided. It wasn't that I was hungry (Madame Pomfrey wouldn't let me leave without having a healthy breakfast as she called it). I wanted to see Harry again. He would know what was good to do around here. Plus he knew who I really was and was the only one I could really trust at the moment.

"Oh, ok," the girl said. "I'm Hermione by the way." She held out her hand to shake. Surprised by the human custom that she just threw in there I smiled and shook her proffered hand.

"Darren."

Hermione led me down several passages (How she remembered her way around I didn't know. Perhaps it was a wizard thing to be able to know where you were instantly) and we eventually made it down to the Great Hall. Everyone was eating there and many people stared at me as I walked in. I realised that by now it would be very cold up here, in the Scottish mountains and I was dressed as if it were the height of summer. That and the fact that they all thought that I was Evanna's little assistant. I tried to ignore them but apparently teenagers staring at you are kind of hard to ignore. Hermione walked over to where Harry was sitting in the middle of the Hall. I glanced up at the table where the teacher's sat. Evanna didn't seem to care where I sat. She was deep in discussion with the pink woman (well I say discussion. It looked much more like they were having an argument). I decided that if I wanted to live (unlike the hideous woman in pink) I would be better off sitting with Harry.

Harry, for his part, looked surprised when I tapped his shoulder but didn't hesitate to offer me a seat. I gladly took it as my back had begun to throb a little painfully.

"Looks like Umbridge is trying to get the new professor to agree with the Ministry," Hermione said as she glanced worriedly up at Evanna and the pink woman (or as I now knew her name to be Umbridge. He had probably mentioned it earlier whilst being annoying). I snorted quietly at the idea of Evanna joining in with a round debate of affairs that actually affected the future. The whole twins thing had been bad enough and anyway, Evanna never did anything to change the course of history.

"She won't get far with that," I muttered. Harry raised an eyebrow but didn't query. The conversation at the table had turned to some upcoming event to do with the wizarding sport, Quidditch. Ron and his two older brothers were having an argument over what Quidditch team was the best in the world though and I had no clue what the hell they were talking about. Harry seemed to notice my blank stare.

"Hey, we have a spare period off later. I, Hermione and Ron were thinking of going to see Hagrid. Do you want to come?" harry asked. I thought about that for a moment.

"Sure, fine. I've got nothing better to do," I said. Anything to stay out of that cloak. Anyway, people weren't looking for the Prince. They were probably rejoicing at the fact that he was gone for so long. I frowned at the idea of having to make something up about that. Oh, well, something to think about later.

"Hey, Harry, what do you think happened to the Prince. He's been gone for a while." Perhaps not. What was with it today? The entire world seemed to be trying to prove me wrong. Harry looked as surprised as I felt. Ron was actually asking after me. Well, they do say miracles happen every day.

"I have no idea," Harry lied. I wondered if I should step in and tell the truth. Then I decided against that. If I was going to tell anyone (as unlikely as that would be) I would tell them away from the crowded Great Hall.

"Are you going to eat anything?" one of Harry's friends asked. It was the nervous, chubby boy from the dormitory with the toad. I gave him a friendly smile and shook my head.

"I'm fine. I already ate." The boy practically paled at that. I wondered what he thought I had eaten although he wasn't wrong. I did need to drink at some point soon. I was just putting that off for as long as possible. Plus, Dumbledore had said that he would provide blood for me. I would take him up on that offer later on tonight, as annoyingly painful that would be. It wouldn't be very effective with the wounds that I had but they would help me to heal slightly quicker than the normal human being.

The bell rang just then and everyone rushed towards the door. I took this opportunity to leave. As much as I hated the stupid cloak I had to show up again and think of an excuse as to why I was gone. Ok, it shouldn't technically be for the Prince. I knew that Evanna had probably made up some story about her 'apprentice' needing a break for practicing some such thing or another. But people would still think that I had been out draining people dry. A simple 'I was recovering' wouldn't do. Neither would 'I was visiting a few friends outside of your pathetic village'. They would just think that a whole army of vampires were waiting to drain them dry. No I had to be better than that.

Eventually I left the Gryffindor common room dressed as the Prince (I had come across the Fat Lady by a stroke of luck and I knew the way to Evanna's office from the Great Hall thanks to the first lesson day. It had only been a week since I had last been there). I had decided to say that I had recovered from my accident in a vampire holdup, with my own people who were close friends of my father's and had been assigned to look out for me. I had gone diplomatically to stop them from going back to my father and wiping out the wizard school because someone had 'attacked' me. It seemed suitable enough. It wouldn't make anyone feel any safer but at least they wouldn't think that I had been preying on the local townsfolk. And the wizards knew nothing on what vampires were really like (not that I was sending off the right messages either. But I wasn't technically the type of vampire that they were learning about. Neither were the vampaneze).

I visited Dumbledore first and told him of my need for blood. I left him as he assured me that it would be done. I couldn't take his long speeches, twinkling, suggestive eyes and 'kind' suggestions. Everything about him put me on edge. He was far too inquisitive for me to get to actually like. Harry's spare period was after lunch so I decided to go and visit Evanna's lesson and ended up freaking a bunch of first year's out. For a first day back, it wasn't going too badly.

That was, until I ran into Malfoy.

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**So any good? Please review. I love writing but it's always nice when people actually give some constructive criticism back.**

**Thank you.**


	12. Malfoy is almost lunch

**First of all I would like to say thank you to all who reviewed my last chapter. It was really great to see the review bar go up and know that people were actually reading this and actually liked this story. So yeah, thanks. This is also going much better than the last one as everything doesn't happen quite so cheesily (I think that there's still some chessiness in it but that might just be me) or as quickly. If your not happy just tell me and I'll try to make it right but I might not be bale to do that. Sorry.**

**Disclaimer: Since the last chapter missed this out I'm putting it here for all to see. I don't own Harry Potter or The Saga of Darren Shan. they are unfortunately the ideas of JK Rowling and Darren Shan.**

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Chapter 12: Malfoy is almost lunch

Harry's POV

I was surprised to see Darren at breakfast but I was glad that he had been let out of the hospital wing. After finding him completely lost yesterday I had been planning on going to see him and asking him when he was supposed to leave. Darren had looked relieved when I had found him yesterday and he looked much happier now than when he had been dressed up in the Prince costume a week ago. I felt a little sorry that I had to leave him for lessons since he wasn't dressed as the Prince yet and everyone thought that he was professor Evanna's assistant.

Double potions first thing with Snape though should be banned. He had us brewing a concoction for curing boils although Neville ended up melting his cauldron and everyone apart from Hermione had ended up concocting the potion for creating boils instead of curing them. By the end of the lesson, Harry felt as if he was coming to the end of his tether. It was bad enough that the Daily Prophet kept printing crap about me but Malfoy was taking it to the next level.

"Going to come up with some new story for us Potter? Didn't you just _love _posing for the camera last year that you just _had_ to make up something to get back into the papers." Malfoy should know damn well that Voldemort is back. He just wants to make as much 'fun' as possible by using it as an excuse for picking on me.

After Potions I had Transfiguration with McGonagall (which didn't go too badly if turning your cockroach into a combination of roach and pocket watch will give you top marks) and finally lunch. After lunch I had planned to meet up with Darren and visit Hagrid. Darren though, seemed to have other ideas. I hadn't seen him at all today, other than at breakfast and I had begun to wonder if he was lost again. Instead he was stalking past the Great hall dressed as the Prince again. By the way that the air around him seemed to have dropped a few temperatures I took it that he wasn't in a good mood. In fact he was stalking right towards the Gryffindor common room. I decided to stay quiet for now and wait for him in the Great Hall if he ever appeared. I wondered briefly what could have made him so annoyed.

Darren didn't reappear during lunch and by the time I, Hermione and Ron had finished, it still didn't look as if he was going to turn up.

"I told you that you can't trust a vampire," Ron said as we stood a little anxiously outside the Great Hall again.

"Perhaps he's just lost," Hermione said quietly. It was a possibility. Darren had only been here for a week and a bit and most of that had been spent in the hospital wing.

"Who have you lost this time Potter? Your mother or your father?" Malfoy's voice came accompanied by the usual snickers from Crabbe and Goyle. I gritted my teeth and ignored Malfoy. It wasn't worth it to start a fight with him now.

"You know insulting someone's parents is just asking for you to be hit straight across the face," said a voice, floating into the conversation almost as if it belonged there. I turned to see Darren standing behind Malfoy, his eyes blazing. His normally emotionless brown eyes were blazing a bright red which was pretty scary.

"Oh, its Professor Evanna's lost assistant. Did your race throw you out because you're so scrawny?" Personally, harry thought that Darren was anything but scrawny but Malfoy didn't know that. Malfoy just thought because his father was so close to the minister he could get away with anything. Except the minister had allowed Darren to come to the school. So… this was not going to end well.

"Say that again and your head will no longer be connected with your shoulders. Thank that again and you won't be breathing in the next five minutes," Darren growled. The shadows around them seemed to jump and flicker as if reacting to Darren's anger. Harry was alarmed to see a pair of fangs within Darren's normally, human-looking teeth. Harry had known that his teeth were stronger than the average human but he distinctly remembered Evanna saying something about vampires not actually having fangs. There was something going on here that harry didn't know or understand.

Apparently Malfoy had the same idea as he went pale at the sight of Darren's new set of teeth. "Y-You can't do anything to e. When my father hears about this you'll be kicked out," he stuttered. Harry almost wanted to laugh if he hadn't felt the temperature drop another couple of figures. He was starting to wonder when icicles would start sprouting from his nose. It felt cold enough.

"You want to know something," Darren said with a leer. Malfoy's face went an ashen grey. "The Minister for Magic invited me here. Unless he's your father no one gives a damn about what happens to you. One less annoyance on the planet then." He gave Malfoy a malicious grin, turning his whole face pretty scary. Harry almost gulped.

"Darren you can't possibly mean that!" Hermione gasped. Harry wondered what she was thinking but had to grudgingly agree. As great an idea it might be to have Malfoy off his back, they couldn't let him be killed. Darren blinked for a moment and his expression went from leery maniac to just pissed off in about a second.

"Don't ever make me that angry again," Darren snapped at Malfoy before he stalked off in the opposite direction; ironically towards Hagrid's hut. Malfoy didn't hesitate to clear off and for a moment I stood where I was, unsure whether or not Darren would want to be followed. Then I started after him.

"Are you mad? He nearly ate Malfoy and now you want to go after him!" Ron shouted, waving his arms around in the air like he was trying to attract my attention from far away.

"No. He looks as if he needs a friend or at least someone to talk to," I replied, ignoring him and walking on. Hermione just followed me. She still looked a little scared but she was putting on a brave face. Darren was like nothing we had ever faced before and he was our friend. Well, my friend anyway. I didn't care that Ron couldn't handle being around him nor did I care that people steered well clear of him after they knew who he was. No one could be on their own all the time.

Darren was far ahead of us by the time we caught up with him. In fact he was seething right in front of the Quidditch pitch which made me remember the match that was scheduled for later this afternoon. Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. Not as bad as it could be but still. Darren didn't seem to notice or care where he was. He was just sat in the shadows of the pitch glaring out at anyone who came past (and even if they did they turned back after about two second of being under that glare). I took a deep breath before approaching him. No matter what I thought about him he was pretty scary at the moment.

"Hey," I said. Darren just nodded his head to acknowledge the fact that I was there. "Are you all right?" Darren sighed and glared at the ground.

"Just peachy," he muttered under his breath. I paused for a moment. I had never seen Darren this pissed off and I didn't want to find out the consequences of that.

"You know if you don't want to talk about it that's fine but if you do… What happened?" I asked cautiously. There was a long silence and then Darren sighed. His eyes slipped closed for a moment and suddenly I didn't see Darren, the Vampire prince or Darren, assistant to Evanna. I saw a boy a long way from home who, like me, had seen too much in too little a space of time. He didn't look threatening. In fact he looked a little… sad.

"I was just angry and let my feelings run away with me. It was wrong and I shouldn't have got so worked up over it but he was really pissing me off. Ad I don't like bullies who think that they're better than you or the people you know," Darren said quietly. I thought about that for a moment.

"So how comes your eyes went red?" I asked. Darren's head shot up at that one.

"My eyes did what?" he said, startled. I looked at his eyes carefully and noticed that they had gone back to their normal brown. I shrugged.

"Well, back when you were talking to Malfoy your eyes were blood red. You looked kind of scary and… hungry." Darren cringed at the mention of hunger.

"Sorry. I need to drink soon and I may have gotten a bit carried away." He looked sheepish at that. I wondered what it must be like, to have the very thing you need to live all around you and yet you couldn't take a sip. I was thankful that Darren had the restrain to not feed on everyone in sight.

"That's ok. You know what will take your mind off this?" I asked. He looked a bit baffled.

"Err… no."

"Come with us to see Hagrid. You'll like him. His food is terrible though so if he offers, just kindly decline." Darren laughed at that.

"I think I'll try it before I make any judgements on that. Trust me, some of the food that I've eaten, you people here wouldn't touch. You have no idea how much you're being pampered here." I snorted.

"My family back home barely feed me. They think that I'm a waste of space." Darren raised an eyebrow at that and I felt a bit sheepish. I shouldn't have said that but it was too late to take it back now.

"I've been through worse but I'm sorry your aunt and uncle don't care much for you. I can't really say that I feel for you since my family-" Darren suddenly cut off, looking a little misty eyed. He looked back at the floor again and it struck me that Darren was a lot older than he looked even if he did only act like a child sometimes. I wondered how long he had been alive for and when he had been 'blooded' as Evanna called it. I didn't want to intrude so another long silence passed. Darren suddenly sniffed and looked up.

"So… your elusive friend Hagrid then?" he said. He seemed much happier than earlier but I wondered what he was really thinking. No one went from being unhappy, remembering those who were probably dead, to be happy again. That wasn't exactly human and while Darren wasn't he certainly acted like it.

"Right," I muttered.

We ended up going with only Hermione since Ron refused to go anywhere near Darren after the whole I'm-going-to-eat-Malfoy fiasco. Hagrid didn't seem and took to Darren pretty well. After Darren had gotten over his initial shock that we had come to see a half-giant he and Hagrid starting sharing tales, the likes of which I was glad that we had left Ron in the Gryffindor common room. At the moment Darren was munching on one of Hagrid's biscuits that we hadn't been able to decline.

"These are one of the better things I've tasted in life," Darren said, his earlier feelings forgotten. I was surprised that Darren was enjoying Hagrid's cooking but then again he had vampire teeth and so was actually able to bite through the biscuits without a problem. "Much better than boar guts and bat broth!"

"Excuse me?" Hermione squeaked. If anything named 'boar guts' or 'bat broth' had ever come her way, or even mine, I don't think either of us would have eaten it.

"Eh, delicacies of vampire mountain. They don't exactly get imports from the local area do they?" Darren said, practically laughing.

"Right," I said, "so you just readily eat boar guts and bat broth?" Darren shrugged.

"Better cooked than raw. Wouldn't eat it otherwise." We all laughed at that.

"So, what d'ya know abou' dragons Darren?" Hagrid asked. He seemed chuffed that he would know something better than a vampire. Darren thought for a moment and picked up another biscuit.

"Well… I haven't seen that many but I know that they sometimes travel in packs and that the males mainly hunt for the females and offspring. Oh, and they don't like visitors in their territory. Mind you this might be a bit ahead of your guys time so what do you know about dragons?" Darren said. I felt my mouth fall open at his words. Even Hagrid looked a little shocked.

"D-Did you just say ahead of our time? Wouldn't you mean before?" Hermione asked when she found her voice. I blinked realising that she was right as usual. Darren blinked himself.

"Err… forget I said that," he said. I wondered what he was hiding. Apparently Hermione thought the same.

"You can't mean that you have seriously been to the future because that's impossible. If it's impossible to go completely back in time more than a few hours then it's impossible to move forwards in time," Hermione said in her usual know it all voice. Darren shrugged.

"Then do as I said and forget I said that. You'll be better off not knowing, trust me." Darren looked at her right in the eyes, not caring (or probably even noticing) about the deep blush that was starting to form. He then changed subject.

"So, what kind of spiders do you get around here?" I groaned inwardly. If anything, spiders were a worse subject than dragons.

"Oh, well, yer don' get many but we do have some very large ones," Hagrid said. I was surprised that he was sharing information about his giant hairy friend in the Forbidden Forest. Darren just smiled like he had had a brilliant idea.

"Poisonous ones?" he asked sweetly. Hagrid frowned but answered all the same.

"Well, the biggest ones are but yer don' go near those," he said. Darren just smiled.

"My mentor used to own a spider. Deadly poisonous but if you knew how to control her she wouldn't kill you. In fact, I can just about control any spider that has the brain capacity to control a tribe of others. But the spider I learnt to do it on was called Madame Octa and she was the best." Darren looked as if he was remembering happier times and I wondered who his mentor was but knew better than to ask. Darren could flare up at the smallest thing and the use of past tense made me think that his mentor was dead.

"Must o' been a beau'iful creature, that one," Hagrid said, tears brimming in his eyes at the thought. Darren nodded.

"Mmmm… she was brilliant but she was no pet. If you couldn't control her you were dead. There is no cure now for her bite."

"So there was one before?" Hermione asked suddenly. She looked slightly hopeful, as if the mention of a cure meant that there must be some somewhere in the world.

"Yes but… it's a long story." Darren looked pained again. "Let's just say that there was some and it was used up so now there isn't any in the world." After that Darren barely spoke again, lost in whatever memories he was thinking of. I glanced at me watch and then swore. It was time for the Quidditch match.

"What?" Darren asked, snapped out of his reverie.

"I'm late for Quidditch! I can't let Gryffindor down by not turning up! They'll think we've gotten into trouble again!" And with that I ran out of the door, not caring about the confused look on Darren's face and Hermione's quiet explanations to him about what Quidditch was. If I had known then that a Quidditch match could mean so much then I would have stayed at Hagrid's. Gladly.

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**I'm going to set this challenge since I think it will be interesting to see how many get this. It's not that obviouos but the ending is kind of a Darren Shan rip off but it'll be interesting to see if you do. So the challenge is this:**

**Who do you think is going to make an appearence in the next chapter?**

**Can't wait!**


	13. Stupid destiny

**Right this is going to be amazingly quick because my computer is dying. Thanks for all the reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Darren Shan or Harry Potter!**

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Darren's POV

I had absolutely no idea what was going on. We had apparently gotten pretty good seats according to Ron who had scowled at me as Hermione led me to where he was standing but that didn't help the understanding of the game. It just didn't make sense. If it had been on the ground maybe it might have made a little sense but this flying in the air business? I felt sick at the thought and finally understood Mr Crepsley's refusal to fly. Vampires were not made to fly, especially vampire named Darren Shan.

Even so it was fun to cheer for Harry. I couldn't tell if he was doing good or bad or even if floating in mid-air and staring around was what he was meant to be doing or even if he was good at the sport. All I knew was that he was sitting on a broomstick looking around an oval pitch with giant bubble blowers at either end. Hermione had told me that he was looking for something called a 'golden snitch' which to me meant that he was looking for a golden liar which I highly doubted. If they were really just playing a game of 'would I lie to you' then they wouldn't need the brooms.

Harry suddenly dived and once I got over the nauseous idea of maybe having to do the same at some point I cheered on for him (even if that was five seconds after everyone else). As harry reached out however the noise of the game started to fade away. Everything started to slow down like they do in cheesy movies when the main character is having a moment. Except I wasn't having a moment and the sky was blood red. A familiar blood red. With familiar screams rising from the pitch. I looked down and realised that I was standing on a now ruined stand. Scattered on the floor were dismembered bodies, some so brutally disfigured that they were unrecognisable. I spotted Ron with half his face burnt off and Hermione lying in a pool of her own blood. Harry was nowhere to be found and I felt sick as I realised that he was probably one of those twisted unrecognisable corpses.

"Beautiful isn't it?" a voice said behind me. I turned slowly to see the shadowy shape from my dream.

"Who are you?" I asked, desperately trying to keep the trembling out of my voice. I was scared of the answer because I knew exactly who the shadowy figure was.

"I am you. You are me. This is our future and it will be glorious," the figure said, raising its blood red eyes to the sky as if praying. And that's when it hit me, the shock so great I actually fell. Harry had said that my eyes were red when I had faced Malfoy. I remembered anger and resentment towards the boy bubbling up and the thirst for blood so great that all I had to do was open my mouth and sink my fangs into his juicy neck to feel the blood running down my throat, satisfying the sickening cravings… Then all of a sudden the noises of the game came back and I was lying on my back in the middle of the stands. I groaned and clutched my head.

"Darren? Are you all right?" I peeked through my hands which were somehow covering my face and saw that the voice was Hermione's. She, Ron and the pudgy faced boy from the Gryffindor dormitory were leaning over me. Hermione looked the most worried, the pudgy faced boy looked wary and yet and Ron just looked confused.

"What just happened?" Ron asked, sounding as confused as he looked. Before I could answer gasps filled the air. I turned my gaze to the sky. It was as blood red as my vision but this time it was for real and bright red lightening flickered across the sky. I growled, knowing exactly who would want to make such an overly-extravagant entrance. My dear father.

Hermione looked alarmed and I pulled myself to my feet and shoved people out of the way, heading towards the exit. I didn't need to look at the ground to know who was there. Hermione was trying to follow calling my name but I eventually lost her. Evanna was at the foot of the stairs and all she did was hand me the cloak. It didn't matter that I wasn't wearing a suit or hadn't thought about what I was going to do next. All that mattered was getting him away from innocent people before he messed up their lives as well.

My darling father was entertaining the teachers by smiling and waving at them as if to say 'hello I'm just an innocent old man but when you turn your back I'll kill you without a second thought'. More gasps came as I entered the Quidditch pitch. Harry glanced across at me and shivered. I vaguely wondered why that was.

"Get. Out." I hissed at him through gritted teeth. Mr Tiny turned and gave me his best bone chilling smile.

"What? No kind words? No queries as to you father's health? My, the youth these days!" he said pleasantly. I knew that he was about as pleasant as a snake.

"Cut the crap. We both know that you're just screwing with the wizards while you desperately clutch at straws to end the world with your pet Voldemort," I growled. My Tiny's face darkened.

"And you should remember to respect your elders. Or have you forgotten your last punishment?" I winced at the reminder of the whips and the claws and the pain. I had no desire to go through that again but that wouldn't stop me from protecting Harry and his friends.

"That was a long time ago and we had a deal. I become what you want, you leave the world alone. This doesn't class as leaving the world alone."

"Just because we made that deal doesn't mean the wizarding world is part of your world. Your world is the world of the vampires. That leaves me with the wizarding world and the human world. Next time we make a deal you had better get what you want put in writing and check for loopholes." And with that he turned back to the waiting wizards.

"Wizards! I am Mr Tiny and I come bearing troubling news! I see all and know all and I have seen that your Lord Voldemort as risen again! There is a prophecy about his death though. Only one can go up against him but beware! For neither can live while the other survives!" I rolled my eyes at his dramatics. I knew that there was more to this than him spewing a prophecy. He was here to ruin someone else's life. I couldn't let him do that so for now I would sit this out.

"Who's this person who can go against Voldemort?" someone shouted. I tensed an uneasy feeling going through me. What if he was about to say someone I knew? Or someone I didn't like? Or even a teacher? I couldn't protect this person without their consent. Mr tiny just smiled and I shudder ran up the back of my neck.

"Why, Harry Potter of course! The chosen one." I cursed several times inside my head but outside I said nothing at all but My Tiny wasn't finished yet. "I will however grant Harry a choice. He may be helped by only one of my children. The others will oppose him. Good day!" The sky turned back to normal. The entire pitch fell silent. I silently cursed in my head before turning and stalking off, not caring that the entire school followed the movement. I heard a rush of wind and the sound of footsteps behind me but I ignored them heading towards the Forbidden forest.

"Darren…" Harry's voice was barely a whisper and turned to face him. I was shocked to see that he looked pale, almost as if he were going to be sick. I vaguely remembered my dad saying something about neither living while the other survives and realised that while to me that was fine (I had heard enough of that in my lifetime) harry wasn't. He looked like he was bordering between being sick and full on panic. "W-What just happened?" I sighed and lowered the hood of my cloak.

"Mr Tiny came to call with a prophecy. Except this time I don't think there's another way around it," I said quietly thinking back to what My Tiny had said. Harry was 'the Chosen One' and he was allowed help from only one of his children. The others would oppose him. I didn't think that Harry was ready to know about my involvement in this scheme. I had a bad feeling about where this prophecy would end.

"What do you mean no other way around it?" Harry asked his eyes wide. I bit my lip torn between telling him the truth and telling him a lie. Instead I settled on changing the subject.

"It's nothing. Go back to your Quidditch game and catch your 'snitch'. Have fun while you still can," I said, giving him a small smile. Truthfully, this may be his last time to have fun before the real stuff started. Harry gave me an uneasy smile and wandered back off to the Quidditch game but I stayed where I was a moment before heading back towards the forbidden forest. Of all the things to happen to me after all the things I had given up.

_Don't go there_ a voice in my head said. _It'll only make you think of things that can't happen anymore_. But it didn't help. I found myself thinking of Vampire Mountain and bat broth and fried rat. I found myself thinking about Seba Nile and how Mr Crepsley had been going to take up Seba's position once Seba was gone and how he had died and then returned. I wondered if he was looking for me like how I had watched him from Evanna's pool in her cave while I had been recovering. I wondered if they still thought I was alive or were even looking for me at this very moment. I wondered how Darius was and who he was being mentored by. I wondered where Vancha was at this minute. Probably sleeping under a bush somewhere.

I sighed. I should not have thought about those things as they brought back the bad memories as well as good. I remembered Steve and how confused he had been when we had pulled him out of the Lake. _Now there's a thought_ I thought. _What is Steve doing now?_ Personally I hadn't been that concerned about Steve being reborn. That had been part of the deal. Wipe Steve's memories and let him live a clean life. I wondered if he thought that I was actually dead or if he had some niggling feeling that somehow I wasn't but couldn't understand why.

I winced in pain but not from my back. This came from my chest, from the place the needle had been stuck in, the same place where it had felt like there was a fire burning for weeks. I shuddered, remembering how weak and useless I had felt those first few weeks and then only being able to walk a few steps, getting tired after the first but pushing myself to do more. Most people would have given up by then and let themselves recover in their own time but I needed to know that Mr Tiny had kept his promise. I needed to know that they were ok.

It took me a moment to realise that I was standing well inside the forbidden forest with no idea how I had gotten there. I sighed and turned to navigate my way back. Nothing was ever simple any more.

* * *

**Huh, short chapter. Sorry about that. If you're wondering why Steve has no memory don't worry! All will be explained and he will be in this story but not as before because that storyline was a bit complicated. So I thought of a simpler. have to go now or my battery will die completely! Please review!**


	14. Monster

**Yeah, sorry about the rush in the last chapter but my laptop battery was dying. Anyway i hope you all enjoyed that chapter. sadly this chapter is not as long (no idea why. It just turned out like half the last chapter for some reason). And yeah, i kind of ripped off my other stoyr known as Once Upon a Dream. as much as I really want to work on that this must be finished first. It's nagging at me to be done with.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Darren Shan. just the plotline and the arguements and darren's new powers.**

* * *

Third Person

Steve blinked at the two men sitting across from him. They both wore identical black robes with hoods that hid their faces and masks like that of a skull.

"So let me get this straight. You have heard from my father, whom I have never known, that my friend Darren has risen from the grave and is trying to destroy the world. And the only way that he can be put to rest again is by helping your master Lord Voldemort who will spare me when he takes over the world? Doesn't that seem a little… I don't know, dark to you? Why should I help you?" he asked. There was something nagging at the back of his mind, a feeling that there was more to this than met the eye. He hoped it had nothing to do with his black outs.

"Mr Leopard, we assure you that no one you know will get hurt. We have it on good intelligence that you are an able fighter and are capable of leading those who are willing to help us," the one on the left said. He voice was smooth and slick and it didn't take a stretch of the imagination that he was used to telling lies and getting away with it. Steve thought for a moment.

"You swear on your lives that my friends and family won't be hurt? You swear that they will be safe?" he said.

"We swear," the man said. Steve let a small wicked half smile fall on his face, the one that freaked a lot of people out, that made them think _holy shit he's mad_.

"Then I will hold you to that. And if I find out that you have broken your promise or that you have been lying to me I will to hesitate to kill you." Steve felt a tinge of amusement when they both shifted uncomfortably, as if realising for the first time that he wasn't joking, that if this didn't work out well or one of their friends hurt the people he cared about, then they really would be dead.

* * *

Harry's POV

I wanted everyone to stop staring at me. Even in the classrooms, people managed to find a way to stare at me like I was some kind of animal. Not for the first did I wish that I was not the chosen one. Malfoy had started to ask me how I had found an old man to make me sound like I was telling the truth. Strangely Umbridge seemed to have gone missing though. Something about her disappearing in the middle of the night and never being seen again and I found myself glad that she was gone. I didn't need her telling me that I was a liar as well as the rest of the school.

The only person who didn't stare at me like an animal was Darren, Ron, Hermione and Neville. Hermione, Ron and Neville were their usual supportive selves and Neville even plucked up the courage to say that anyone who thought I had staged the scene on the Quidditch match was either mad or a liar. Darren on the other hand was a bit different. Sometimes he was supportive and at other times he would go out of his way to avoid me.

At first I had thought that it was a side effect of needing blood but I had been informed by professor Evanna that he had been drinking human blood regularly. It took me a moment to realise that she had started to be wary of me as well but for another reason. She didn't stare at me like I was an animal but she seemed distant as if she were sorry of something. At first I wondered why. Then I just shook it off. She was a teacher after all and she probably thought that it was for the best.

It wasn't until Halloween that I was able to speak to Darren properly. He seemed strangely tense, as if waiting for something to happen. I found him lurking in one of the corridors leading down to the dungeon.

"You know if I didn't know better I would say that you were a secret Slytherin," I said jokingly. Darren jumped as if he hadn't realised that I was there and then gave me a tentative smile.

"Nah, I just like the dark being a vampire and all. Not too keen on coffins though," he said. I frowned. I could have sworn that Evanna had said that vampires sleep in coffins and that that was the truth.

"I thought vampires slept in coffins?" I asked. Darren laughed.

"My people love coffins. They do normally sleep in coffins in fact they prefer to sleep in coffins. Probably an inside joke in Abraham Stoker but yeah. I don't like coffins. Being buried alive in one tends to put you off them for life." I didn't question when he got buried live in one. There were some things that you didn't ask about.

"What about when you die?" I asked. Darren shrugged.

"I'll be stripped of my internal organs and then cremated or thrown down a river."

"Sounds painful."

"I'll be dead when it happens."

"Right." There was a long stretch of silence and I could feel the tension around Darren. The shadows seemed to coil in his anxiety. "Stop that," I said, noticing several shadows leap, almost as if trying to peel themselves off the wall to attack him.

"Stop what?" Darren asked, clearly confused.

"That," I said, pointing at the wall. He glanced at them and I noticed that his eyes were blood red again. It looked extremely creepy in the darkness of the corridor. Darren looked uneasy himself.

"Am I doing that?" he asked, rolling away from the wall slightly.

"Well I'm not doing it and there's no one else around." Darren looked freaked by this revelation but I knew that it was him. The shadows had done this whenever he was mad so it had to be tied in with his feelings.

"I have got to get a grip on this," he muttered ad I briefly wondered what he meant.

"What do you mean? And how can you do that? Is it like a vampire thing?" I asked. Darren shook his head, a sad look on his face.

"Let's just say that I'm different to other vampires and leave it at that. Trust me I creep myself out more than you're probably freaking yourself out right now." I shook my head.

"I've gotten used to weird things happening around you. But why are you so different to the other vampires?" I asked. Darren swallowed and closed his eyes as if trying to think of a suitable lie without having to tell me the truth. He sighed and slid down the wall until he was sitting on the floor. When he opened his eyes again they were their normal brown but they were full of sadness.

"It's a long story. You may want to sit down for it," he said. I nodded and sat down next to him. He sighed and stared up at the ceiling. "You remember the man who came a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah," I said, remembering the man known as Mr Tiny. I don't think that I would ever be able to forget that.

"He's my father."

"What?" I shouted, leaping away from him. Darren just looked at the floor miserably.

"He's my father. He ruined my life and now he's going to ruin yours for fun," he said. I stared at him in horror.

"And you just… just… didn't think to tell me? I mean you have everyone thinking that your father's the King of the Vampires or is that a lie too?"

"There is no king." Darren said it blankly as if he had cut off all emotion. "I and my sister lied. There are only Vampire Princes and their elected.2 I stared at him unable to comprehend his answer.

"But you… you said… you're a Vampire Prince! Why lie? And who's your sister?"

"Who do you think?" Darren snapped, suddenly leaping to his feet. It registered in my mind that Darren may have been lean with muscles rippling beneath the surface but h was a lot stronger than his build or any human being. He had the power to snuff my life out of existence if he so wished.

"Professor Evanna," I said quietly, realisation dawning on me. Anger twisted in my gut and I glared at him. "You came here to spy on us didn't you?" Darren blinked, for a moment looking thrown.

"Why would I come here to spy?"

"Because My Tiny's your father! You probably knew what was going to happen and so you're here as a spy for Voldemort!" I shouted. Darren's face darkened, the shadows leaping, his eyes glowing blood red and his canines growing into fangs.

"You think that I would even consider helping my good for nothing father who wants me dead? You think that I want my family killed? I have a sister and nephew out there, did you know that? Do you think that I really would want them dead? Do you think that I want the Clan to fall to the bloody wizards who know about us? Do you think I even wanted to come here?" he shouted back. He was now so angry that he shadows were literally leaping off the wall and onto another. I got the feeling that if I went any further then there would be a catastrophe on our hands. But I still couldn't get over the fact that he had lied.

"Well that's not my problem. Stay away from me and my friends. I don't need a monster destroying my life," I snapped, before turning away and stalking back up the corridor. An animalistic growl rose in the corridor behind me and it registered in my brain that it would be coming from Darren. I expected to feel teeth at my throat any second, something grabbing me from behind and seeing eternal darkness.

Instead shadows rippled around my feet and then sucked backwards, like the backwash of the sea. A different noise echoed down the tunnel and it was only until I reached the Gryffindor common room that I realised that the noise was of someone crying and it hit me of what I had really done.

* * *

**Ha! Bet you thought that Darren's visions were about to come true. Nah, i'm just cruel to Darren but don't worry. i will make his life a bit better because, come on, the poor guy needs a break after that. He just got called a monster! I can;t believe that Harry was that cruel (by the way none of the characters are gettong too OOC are they? Just checking).**


	15. High Kicking

**Hey it's an update! Yeah, I know it's amazing! And guess what? I know what the ending to this is going to be! It's a miracle! I've spent ages on this thinking of how it can end everything seemed useless and then I had this Eureka! moment. It was loud but yeah, I found an ending. It's gonna be happy and sad and will hopefully follow on to the Half Blood Prince. I have debated on ending this so that I can make a sequel but I really don't think I could handle that. This has been a rollercoster in itself! i mean deleting the first set, then starting again, then getting writer's block, then getting inspiration, then getting stuck in a can't phsyically write stage and finally getting writing again! you guys have been the best and I have to thank the people who have been following this regularly and reviewing. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Darren Shan.**

**By the way this is not the end just yet.**

* * *

Third Person

Steve blinked and looked around him. He was sitting by a lake and behind him rose a castle. It seemed to be glaring down at him telling him to go away. He wasn't quite sure how he had gotten here but he had. He was dressed in furs, a little like an animal and was clutching a dead fish in his hands. His stomach rumbled. Steve briefly considered making a fire and then abandoned the idea. He took a bite of the fish, ignoring the disgusting taste. Something told him that he would be feasting on something delicious soon.

* * *

Harry's POV

I wasn't sure how to make it up to Darren nor was I sure whether or not I really wanted to. I couldn't believe that all the time I had known him he had lied about his true nature. What kind of person did that? Then there was the whole business of hi lying about the vampire way of like and the fact that he was in fact one of the leaders.

I hadn't seen Darren in nearly a whole week and it was turning cold quickly. Snow was already starting to fall and I wondered if he was living somewhere else. He turned up in the dormitory to sleep but went to bed long after us and was gone by the time we woke up. The only evidence that eh had been there at all was the unmade bed and slept in covers. But they looked as if he had tossed and turned in the night and sometimes I would wake to hear him screaming but I just tossed a pillow over my head and ignored him. He deserved whatever he got.

Hermione on the other hand was none too pleased that I was now ignoring Darren. She spent more time with him than she did with me and at first I wondered why. She had no link to him and all he ended up doing was getting her to miss meal times and sometimes even lessons. Then I realised that she felt sorry for Darren. As if the monster needed comforting.

"I don't understand it Harry," Hermione said to him one night as she leaned over her potions essay. Even though she had missed nearly the whole lesson she still did all the extra homework that Snape had given her without complaint. "You used to be nice to him and he was being supportive of you." Everyone had eventually stopped staring at me and carried on with their lives. It was nice to know that I wasn't being stared at every hour of the day now.

"Because Hermione, he's a monster and he full well knows it. If you knew the whole truth about him you'd avoid him like me," I replied, ignoring the black look she sent my way.

"Well, if that's how you feel I'll just go hang out with the monster then," she snapped and with that she gathered up her work and disappeared out the porthole. I watched her go for a moment before packing up my things and following her. She led me all the way to Evanna's chambers and knocked before entering. Evanna's voice echoed out from behind the door.

"He's not here Hermione. I'm sorry. He said he went out to clear his head." Hermione walked out the door and very nearly walked straight into me.

"Harry!" she exclaimed before her eyes darkened. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking out for your safety," I said. She narrowed her eyes.

"Well you can go look out for my safety somewhere else thank you. Goodnight Harry." She stalked off down the corridor and I followed her. She growled in the back of her throat and flew round at me. "Look Harry if you really want to come along fine! But you can't say a horrible thing to Darren alright!" A deep chuckle echoed down the corridor. I blinked and Hermione whipped around again. She called out but her voice was quiet, afraid. "Darren?"

* * *

Third Person

Steve had been stalking the pair since he'd entered the school on the third floor window. They had briefly argued and then the girl had stalked away. The boy had followed which seemed to annoy the girl.

"Look Harry," the girl snapped, "if you really want to come along fine! But you can't say a horrible thing to Darren alright!" Steve couldn't help the deep chuckle that formed in his throat. It was as if something had taken over him and he couldn't stop it. _Not again. Not now. I don't want to hurt them. They're children_. But the thing inside him didn't care about that. It only cared about the blood in their veins.

The girl's faced morphed from anger to fear in about three second flat. She called out in a trembling voice "Darren?" Steve ignored the fact that he wasn't meant to show himself and was only meant to be spying on them. His body moved for him stalking behind them. The teacher's door was some way up the corridor and it would be too late for these two by the time she realised that something was wrong. The light was out behind the door and the corridor was only filled with moonlight. The entire atmosphere was charged.

"By the time your little friend gets here you will be dead," Steve growled and was surprised at his voice. It was deeper, more menacing than anything he had ever used. Both of them looked afraid now though the black haired boy was better at hiding it.

"Show yourself!" the boy shouted, whipping out the useless stick that the wizards called a wand. Little did they know that their puny spells wouldn't work on him. _Where did that come from?_ Steve thought but too late he realised that his body was propelling itself forward.

"But I'm right here," he said, sill in that sadistic, menacing way. Steve was beginning to scare himself here. They both whipped around to see him, standing right behind them. He laughed and the girl screamed. Then, as if called by the sound of her voice, something hit him dead in the back, knocking him over. A knife was suddenly at his throat, breath on the back of his neck.

"When I let go of you, you will get up and leave. Is that clear?" a young voice growled. Steve knew better than to say no but whatever had control of his body had control of his mouth too.

"I don't think so," he growled, twisting over and kicking out. The figure leapt off him quickly, almost anticipating what he was going to do. Steve attacked, slicing and stabbing at the boy but he ducked and dodged far quicker than Steve could get at him. Steve growled and suddenly a foot came out of nowhere, striking him across the face.

"I said leave," the person growled. As if the kick had brought him back to his senses Steve nodded. He now had control of his body and raised a hand to his face to touch where the boot had connected. His fingers met blood. Steve staggered to his feet and ran.

Harry's POV

I stared at the figure as it dashed away, almost too quick to see. Three seconds later and it was gone. I wondered how Professor Evanna hadn't heard Hermione's screams or the sounds of fighting. Her office was only up the corridor. Darren stood in front of us, the dagger in his hand glinting in the moonlight. He turned back to us when the figure had disappeared.

"Are you all right?" he asked but the question was more towards Hermione who was staring in shock at where the thing had been. Harry remembered the sudden shift once Darren had kicked it across the face. Not that Harry was impressed or anything at where his high kick had landed. It was nothing compared to what magic could do. Absolutely nothing. **(A/N yeah right Harry. Would like to see you place a high kick like that)**

Hermione gave a slight nod and I shrugged. "What was that thing?" I asked, forgetting the fact that I was trying to ignore him. Darren looked down the corridor almost wistfully.

"Someone who is very confused." With that Darren put an arm round Hermione's shoulders and led her back down the corridor to Professor Evanna's rooms. He led Hermione into the office before disappearing and then reappearing with a kettle and a cylinder of something and three cups. He then proceeded to refilled through Evanna's things until he came across something which looked like a suitcase but when opened revealed itself to be a fridge. Darren put the kettle on and Harry realised that it was one of those that didn't need a lead or plug. As the water heated (where he had gotten it from Harry didn't know) he put the milk over a portable stove and heated that as well. It took me a couple of seconds to realise what he was doing. A few moments later he set three steaming mugs of hot chocolate on the table.

"That should do it," he said. I was cautious at first, thinking he might have slipped something in it but it smelled good so I took it sip. It was as good as it smelled. Better in fact.

"Where did you learn how to make hot chocolate? With electrical appliances?" I asked. Darren gave me an odd look over the lip of his own mug, Hermione just sat there sipping her own quietly, obviously getting over her shock.

"I was only born thirty two years ago. They did have kettles and electric light bulbs back then," he said with a smile. I blinked. I had envisioned Darren to be a lot older than that.

"You're only thirty two?"

"Thirty three in the spring." Hermione looked up and frowned finally speaking.

"But Evanna said that vampires are only blooded when they reach adulthood. You still look fifteen. A little mature for that age but still," she said, "fifteen." Darren shifted uncomfortably in his seat for a moment.

"Yeah, well I was blooded when I was eleven and leave it at that. I and my mentor paid our dues and that's that." Darren went silent after that, his eyes far away and sad as he traced the outline of a knot in the wooden desk that they were using as a table. There was moment of long silence.

"Darren," Hermione said hesitantly, "what happened to the rest of your family? I mean, they must still be alive right?" Darren bit his lip and looked away.

"I try not to dwell on the past but it's hard Hermione. You should understand that there are some things that people don't want to talk about," was his only answer. I remembered what he had said. He still had a sister and a nephew out in the world. I wondered what it must be like knowing that you have family and yet not being able to see them. I wondered why he couldn't see them and suddenly I didn't see a monster anymore. I saw someone who was trying to hide the pain behind the mask of someone a lot older. Suddenly I didn't feel alone anymore.

"Sorry," I said. I didn't realise that I had said it until it was out of my mouth. Darren looked up for a moment and something flashed in his eyes.

"It's late. You two should go to bed. You two have lessons in the morning."

* * *

Third Person

Voldemort hissed as he shot another curse at the man before him and felt increasingly frustrated when it did nothing. Again. Why did this man have to be immune to his curses and spells?

"You were not supposed to attack! Suppose if you had killed the Potter boy? Then I would be ruined! I must kill him myself remember!" he hissed. The man, known to those around him as Steve Leopard, growled. Voldemort shuddered, knowing exactly why he had gotten that nickname.

"I was hungry. Maybe if you fed you fellow workers they might not attack your victims when you want them spied on." Voldemort sighed and waved his hand. A muggle man was thrown in the circle, unconscious.

"Then feed and go again." Voldemort tried to ignore the ripping and slurping of blood as the man tore into his meal. He swept away from the room.

Steve raised his head from him handiwork. The man on the floor was now dead and Steve couldn't understand why he had done it. His belly was full now and he was almost tempted to throw the whole thing up again. He wondered again who the person in the school had been. As far as he knew, any vampire who met a vampaneze would kill them on sight and the boy was obviously a vampire. He was too quick and agile to be anything less. So why hadn't he finished off Steve? And why had he looked almost sad as he had watched him go?

Steve needed to know and no one, not even Voldemort, was going to stop him from getting the answer.

* * *

**Heh, sorry it jumps around so much. It just turned out that way but I'm happy with this chapter. And yes, you can all cheer 'some action at last!'**

**Please review. Constructive criticism is welcome. Flames are not.**


	16. The book

**Wow, I can't believe how fast this is coming along. I warn you now though that tomorrow is one of my last three GCSE's and then I have TWO more on Thursday so it may be a while before I can crawl out of the covers and write some more. Especially since one is my Roman Civilisation paper and the other is Geography. If anyone does AQA Geography B GCSE you'll know what I'm talking about. It's fucking hard! (Mind you not as hard as Latin Language. Definate D in that.)**

**Anyway, I thought I would grace you with this since I might not update in ages and my last chapter left me with reems more to write. I know where it's going I'm just not sure yet how it's going to get there.**

**Mind you this had it's pitfalls. i was writing it and at some point it started to reminisce the old writing style and I didn't like it but then new ideas came so we're all good. Hope you enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own Darren Shan.**

* * *

Mr Tiny's POV

I smiled as I watched my plan take place. So what if that upstart was able to reverse the effects I had on his brother? I still had control of the man. My plan was coming together quite nicely and now there was nothing Evanna could do to help the Potter boy. Shan had saved him too many times to count now.

I smiled at the thought of what I had in store for Darren. It was great payment for destroying the future I had had in mind. Little did he know that those I had brought back were now safely away, back in Paradise. I may not have explicitly ordered it but those who question what they shouldn't should expect punishment. Especially that upstart Crepsley. He had meddled for the last time quite literally.

* * *

Darren's POV

I had known that my dad had a master plan. I had known that he would try to use old enemies against me. What I hadn't expected was Steve. I hadn't expected him to come rushing after Harry and Hermione and I certainly had not expected to get there so fast. How I did I am still not sure about but at least I had gotten there in time to save Harry and Hermione. If I had been any later they might not be sitting where they are now.

It was scary to think that Steve was back as an enemy. The memory of what he had done in the past was still fresh in my mind. Especially Shancus. I couldn't let it get a hold of me now though. I had a job to do and that was protecting Harry. I knew that my father would have chosen me for this by now. I had helped Harry out too much. He was now stuck with me whether he liked it or not. Then again it had never been Harry's decision.

I wondered why Steve had given up so easily. He was usually one to fight until the end no matter whether he was a vampaneze or a human. It just wasn't like him. There was something just not right about it even with my dad's master plan in mind. It was like he was two completely different people. It had been something that I had done that had caused him to stop attacking and something told me that it wasn't the threats.

I was sitting in Evanna's office when Hermione suddenly burst through the doors. Her eyes were wild with excitement and for a moment I was afraid that she was going to start screaming. Instead she flopped into a chair and dumped a book on the table (and since it was a heavy book it landed with a very loud thump).

"And this is…" I said, looking pointedly at the book. Hermione was panting for breath and looking almost too excited for words.

"I found it in the library," she panted. I rolled my eyes at this wondering where else the book could have come from other than the library. I mean, Hogwarts may be big, but there were only so many places you could find a book. "It recounts the last time a vampire came to Hogwarts."

"And this is going to help us how?" I asked, leaning forwards slightly. The book wasn't very interesting to look at. Very old, very dusty and covered in peeling leather. Even the iron clasps holding it together were rusty.

"Well, it mentions something about a Mr Tiny in here too… something about this man looking for a way to have children," Hermione said as she undid the clasps and began to flip through the book. I frowned. Why would a vampire look to the human world when we all knew that Mr Tiny was the real power in the universe? "Here it is," she said, turning the book so that I could see. I glanced down at the page and raised my eyes.

_The vampire would not give his name but he begged with the Ministry at the time to grant him a child. The Ministry refused, telling him that it was impossible to create life from nothing. This was to be believed until a man wearing a yellow suit and green wellington boots appeared. He said that his name was Desmond Tiny and that he alone had the power to create life for the vampires. And so two children, mages, were born, able to bear the children of a vampire._

I stared at the passage, disturbed at the piece of vampire history sitting in these pages. I knew the story well enough although the vampire's name eluded me at this point. I remembered the way that Mr Crepsley had told it to me. It sounded nothing like this.

"So, di you think it's the same person?" Hermione asked. I pulled the book closer, flipping further through it.

"Yes…" I said, distracted, "Any vampire could tell you that story… But that's not the way I remember it." I frowned, looking at a picture. It showed my father in all his short annoying glory, standing over a lake with a fishing net. "What is this book?" I asked. There were more secrets in this book than there should be.

"I don't know. It was shoved right down the back of a shelf, like someone had tried to hide it. Luckily I found it. I was trying to find out more about that guy who visited us. I figured that if he was so powerful there had to be reference to him somewhere. But what do you mean 'that's not the way I remember it'?" Hermione asked. I realised that she had asked the question to be answered after the moment of silence dragged on.

"The way I was told the tale was that the vampire followed Mr Tiny around for years, always asking for a child. Eventually Mr Tiny snapped and congratulated him for his perseverance and mixed his blood with that of a wolf and two children were born. A boy and a girl." Hermione's eyes went wide.

"His children," she breathed. "Do you know who they are?" I looked up at her then. Her eyes were alight in that way that said she was deeply interested in something. This was one thing that she couldn't know.

"There are some things that are better left hidden Hermione. I think the person who tried to hide this book understood that," I told her grimly, turning the book so she could see the picture of my father fishing in the Lake of Souls.

"What is that?" she asked, before leaning over and reading the passage aloud. "_Legend tells of the servants that Mr Tiny keeps, strange men with grey skin and short bodies. They have immense strength and some may even talk if My Tiny grants them the gift of speech. In legend it is said that these servants are the souls of people lost and have made deals with Mr Tiny in a bid to leave the Lake of Souls, a place of torment and destruction._ That sounds… nice."

"They're not just souls Hermione," I said. She glanced up and seemed to see the uneasy expression on my face.

"What's wrong? What are they?" she asked. I shook my head.

"Hermione… if I told you, bad things will happen. Bad things are happening because I'm here. I think we should tell Harry about this." And with that I got up and left, leaving the book and its secrets on the desk.

* * *

Hermione's POV

I stared after Darren's retreating back. I knew that he was hiding something but I wasn't quite sure what. It had something to do with the book. I wasn't an idiot. I had seen the way that Darren's face had become even more uneasy the further through the book he had read. I glanced back at the image of the man from before and back at the door. I wondered briefly whether or not to leave the book and then picked it up. If there was something in this book that we could use to help Harry then I wasn't going to leave it behind.

Darren looked unhappy with my decision to bring the book but didn't say anything when I caught up with him. Everyone avoided him, even turning up new corridors to get away from him but that was normal. Everyone did that, ever since his run in with Malfoy. I wondered whether or not they felt a slight repulsion or had just been warned off making him angry.

"Hermione," Darren suddenly said, swinging around to face me. I blinked at this sudden stop and the close proximity. This was not normal. "Promise me something."

"What?" I asked. "What do you want?"

"Promise me that you won't tell Harry about the children of the vampire. Please?" he asked. I stared at him. It was such a strange request. Why would he want to hide that from Harry?

"Ok but tell me why," I said quietly. Darren's face twisted and I wondered what he was thinking. Finally he sighed.

"As I said, Hermione. Some things are best left hidden. You shouldn't have found that book in first place but I think you were meant to. Who else pores through the library like you?" He cracked a half smile at that but I could still see the unease in his eyes. There was something about the book that Darren seemed almost afraid of. Almost.

We eventually found Harry on the Quidditch pitch. He was practicing with the Gryffindor team and was whizzing around after the snitch. It was one of the rare times that I saw Harry smile for real and again it made me feel slightly guilty. It was stupid since it wasn't even my fault that Harry's parents were dead but it didn't stop me from feeling guilty that I still had a loving family to go home to at the end of the year while Harry didn't. He took a long time to notice us and when he did he frowned. He waved to Angelina to show that he was leaving and landed in front of Darren.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked Darren, concerned. I noticed that he looked slightly green, as if the idea of flying on a broomstick was sickening let alone watching it.

"I'm fine," Darren murmured eyes on the floor. There was some kind of tension between them, something that still hadn't been resolved. I didn't know what it was. Harry still had to tell me and I knew that Darren would never give up any of his secrets. He barely gave up any before they had had the argument let alone now. It was only the book that had made Darren spill about the vampire legend. I wondered why the wizard version was different.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked, his face guarded. For a moment I wondered what he was thinking. Maybe he thought Darren had done something unspeakable and I was about to throw myself in his arms, begging for forgiveness. I fought the urge to snort. As if.

"I found this book," I said as way of explanation, remembering my promise to Darren. He had never said that I couldn't mention it but I didn't fail to see him shift further away from it. "It talks about that man on the Quidditch pitch last week." Harry's eyes lit up.

"Really? Can I see?" He stretched out his hands as if to take it from me. I hesitated and pressed the book closer to my chest.

"Um… maybe later. I haven't finished reading it yet to know if it's really helpful," I said, hoping the lie sounded convincing. Harry frowned but didn't question it. Darren didn't react at all. For a moment I wondered if he had frozen to the spot but then he shifted his weight between his feet so I figured he was just distracted.

"I'll see you later then?" harry said, although it sounded more like a question. I nodded at him and then hurried away, eager to see what else the book would give up.

* * *

I blinked in the candlelight and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, thanking whatever god was up there that tomorrow was a Saturday. Or more likely today was a Saturday judging by how late it was. I was the only person still sitting in the Gryffindor common room and the candle I was using was almost burnt out. I was sitting reading the book that I had found and was almost at the end. For now it was outlining some vampire war. I sighed promising myself that I would go to bed after this last page.

I flipped the page and blinked, wondering if my sleep deprived brain was getting to me. I closed my eyes and rubbed them before looking again. Nothing had changed. There on the page was the attacker from last night fighting a vampire foe. He had the same blood red eyes and mad expression. He held a knife up and seemed to be laughing in mad glee. But that wasn't what shocked me. It was his attacker because I recognised the face. It was Darren.

I glanced at the caption. _The Vampire Prince Darren Shan and the Lord of the Vampaneze Steve Leonard face each other to the death_. I stared at the picture again. It was Darren. Except his eyes had a little more light to them and he looked just a little happier, even if he was in pain and was fighting to his death. I read the passage with it.

_The War of the Scars was concluded when a surprise turn of events killed both leaders. Darren Shan and Steve Leonard both raced off in a fight to the death. Darren eventually gained the upper hand, killing Steve Leonard but somehow in his death throes Steve managed to place several fatal wounds to young Shan. The fight is known as the fight of brothers, a reference, perhaps, to their father since the pair are more commonly known as the Sons of DesTiny._

My blood ran cold and I stared at the passage again. Little made sense to me but one thing was for sure. Darren should not be walking around at this moment and neither should our attacker.

* * *

**Ohhh, plot twist. This was not meant to happen and now it has. Oh, well. Hermione'll figure it all out. She's smart like that. unless of course Darren's figured it out already. The that's just showing her up since Darren hasn't been to school in like eight years and we all knwo how that turned out.**

**Please read and rate (I'm taking it that you've made it this far with me).**


	17. Deals with destiny

**I am SO sorry that I haven't updated in ages! I was going to wait for another review to make it to fifty since a friend of mine promised to review (if someone promises to review don't trust them. She said that weeks ago and I'm still waiting). Anyway I then had writer's block and then I had no inspiration of where to go from the last chapter. Well, I knew where I wanted it to go but I didn't know how to get there. I'm hoping Vancha will make it into the next chapter since he was supposed to be in this one and sadly didn't make it.**

**Disclaimer: I sadly do not own Darren Shan... sniff sniff...**

* * *

Harry's POV

I yawned in the light of a new day. It was a Saturday morning which made it even better. No lessons today, just a trip to Hogsmead with no Darren. Darren seemed to have an avoidance of the wizarding village for some reason. At some point I had wondered why but I eventually gave up. Like all the other questions I had about Darren he refused to answer and so I thought of better things to worry about. Like Voldemort for instance.

What I didn't expect to wake up to on my amazing Saturday morning was Hermione leaning over my bed.

"AHHHH!" I yelled. Not that that was my fault. She looked awful. Her eyes were bruised as if she had stayed up all night and she looked freaked out of her mind. In fact she looked scared. "What's wrong?" I asked. She shook her head and beckoned for me to follow her. Shrugging I pulled a dressing gown on and followed her into the Gryffindor Common Room. The book from yesterday was lying open on a page near the back.

"Did you stay up all night reading this?" I asked, not really looking at the book. Hermione just bit her lip and collapsed into a chair.

"Darren was right Harry," she mumbled. She was staring into the fire, tears brimming over in her eyes. "There are some things better left unknown." I frowned at her odd comment and looked at the book. There was an illustration of Darren fighting the assailant from last night. I frowned.

"Since when was Darren in this book?" I asked, pulling it towards me. Hermione's quiet sobs filled the room as I read the passage. Then re-read it. And read it again. It couldn't be right. There was no way that it was true. It just couldn't be.

"Tell me it doesn't…" Hermione sobbed. She looked scared. I bit my lip, realising that she had wanted me to say that what she had read last night was due to lost sleep. But I couldn't lie to her. Not about this.

"It does," I said, putting a hand over the picture of Darren. Then I frowned at something in the passage. "Hermione… have you seen this?"

"Seen what?" Hermione sniffed, coming over whilst wiping away her tears. I pointed to the word 'destiny' in the passage. Except it wasn't written like that. It was written as 'DesTiny'.

"The capital d and t were added later. See? The ink's faded over the original lettering," I said. Hermione frowned and leaned over the book, her woes forgotten for now.

"I see it… but why would someone do that? It's like they were trying to make a…" her voice trailed off as her eyes widened.

"What?" I asked. She held a hand up, her mouth moving, words breathed out like she was trying to work something out.

"Destiny… DesTiny… _D_es_T_iny… _Des Tiny…" _Hermione gasped her eyes wide. "Mr Tiny! Desmond Tiny! That's what they were trying to point out!"

"What?" I said again, not sure where she was going with this.

"Harry, it's talking about Mr Tiny! The man on the Quidditch pitch! He's Darren's father!" Hermione shrieked, roughly grabbing hold of my shirt and shaking me as if I was stupid. I blinked at her wondering whether or not I should tell her that I knew. But then she surprised me as she flipped back through the book. "I promised I wouldn't show you this but I think I have to now," Hermione said, "I found this as well last night."

She was pointing at a passage with the illustration of a wolf curled around two children.

_The two children of Desmond Tiny were born to a wolf. The male went on to run a forbidden circus, showing the freaks of the muggle world while the female travelled the world for many years. T the end she had discovered man things and both had chosen names. Hibernius Tall and Evanna._

I stared at the passage like I had the last. Suddenly things seemed to fall into place. Professor Evanna hadn't been keeping her distance because she felt empathy for me. She was a child of Mr Tiny and she was making sure it wasn't her that ended up helping me! I wondered why she wanted to avoid helping me. It wasn't as if she could attack me in the school. Then I frowned as a thought came into my head.

"Hermione why couldn't you show me this?" I asked. She bit her lip and averted her eyes from me.

"Well… not this exact page anyway…" she mumbled and then closed the book. "I think we should confront Darren." I stared at her.

"Hermione, that's crazy. Darren's the son of Mr Tiny and he could probably do a lot worse to you than a normal vampire. I don't think that confronting him is the best idea especially since you've been up all night." Hermione sent me a glare.

"It is not crazy Harry. The best way to solve a problem is to confront it. And personally I think that Darren knows a lot more about what's going on than we do right now," Hermione said frostily. I sighed.

"Fine but let me get dressed first."

* * *

We found Darren hanging out in front of the doors to the Entrance Hall. The doors were wide open and Darren was standing underneath the arch with his eyes closed, letting the cold December breezes wash over him. It struck me that this was the first time that I had ever seen Darren relaxed. He always seemed coiled up inside and now he almost seemed… content. As if he was thinking of better times. I felt guilty to take him away from that.

"Darren…" Hermione started hesitantly.

"Mmmm." Darren didn't sound particularly dedicated. He sounded far away, lost in whatever he could see behind his eyelids. There was a small smile on his face. Hermione frowned.

"What are you doing?"

"I love the wind up here. Washes away any tension I have. And the air smells like mildew and lavender. My mother loved lavender," Darren murmured keeping his eyes closed. I suddenly wanted to do this another time, not ruin his moment. I glanced at Hermione and noticed she felt the same way too. We had never seen Darren this lost in the past before, especially lost in the good aspects of his past. I wondered where his parents were now.

"Can… can we talk to you?" I asked. Darren nodded his head, breathing in deeply through his nose. He was right. The air definitely smelled like mildew and lavender but the lavender was so faint you would probably miss it if you didn't concentrate. Then again Darren's senses were much better than mine.

"We want to talk to you about something in this book," Hermione said quietly and all of a sudden Darren looked uneasy. He turned to face us and he looked like I had always seen him. Uneasy and not quite sure what they wanted.

"What about it?" he asked stiffly, all traces of happiness gone from his voice.

"Well… there's this… this passage…" Hermione stuttered and it hit me how tired she must be and how frightened. Darren seemed to notice this and guided her to the foot of the stairs outside the Great hall. Hermione sank onto them gratefully. Darren's expression had softened slightly and he sat next to her.

"What is it?" he asked his tone softer now. Hermione shook her head and opened the book to the first passage I had seen. Darren took the book from her and frowned and then glanced at the front. It hit me that he was checking for a publishing date, something I had never thought to do with any of Hogwarts books. It just seemed like they had been written for hundreds of years and knew pretty much anything. Darren was still frowning when he turned back to the front.

"This books pretty recent." He sounded as surprised as I felt. The book was ratty and horrible and looked as if someone had left in in the cellar for half a century.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked. Darren cocked his head, brushing his hand over the illustration before flipping back in the book.

"It was written last year," he said as he flipped, he suddenly stopped at a page with an illustration of an orange haired man impaled on flaming stakes. I noticed his face twist in a way that someone might stare at a picture of a loved. He looked like he was holding back tears as he stroked the picture gently. Hermione looked at him carefully before reading the caption over his shoulder.

"_Larten Crepsley falling to his death._ Did you know him?" Hermione asked. Darren nodded wordlessly and pointed to the inscription.

"I don't remember it this way but the book's pretty accurate," he said. His voice cracked several times and tears slipped from his eyes as they fell closed. Hermione gently took the book away and Darren's hands instantly went to his face. "He was my mentor."

Silence stretched on after that statement. Neither I nor Hermione wanted to intrude any further and Darren's quiet sobs filled the air. Eventually they subsided and Darren sniffed and wiped his tears away with the back of his hand.

"Sorry," he said quietly. I shook my head.

"Sometimes it's ok to cry," I said. "He must have meant a lot to you."

"He did," Darren said flatly, staring ahead. Hermione bit her lip and looked at me. I shrugged, knowing what she wanted to say.

"Darren… you don't have to answer if you don't want to… but why does the book say that you died?" Hermione asked quietly. Darren took a shuddering breath and nodded.

"It was nothing really. We had to fight to end the war and Steve… Steve really wanted revenge I guess," Darren said his eyes far off. "But our father thought that he had the upper hand. He revealed too much too soon. I didn't want to be a puppet on a string so we killed each other." Darren shrugged as he said this and Hermione shifted aside a little. Darren laughed as she did so.

"But then that means you're… dead," I said, staring at him. Darren shook his head.

"I wish but no. My soul went to the Lake of Souls. If you fish a soul out from there then they instantly come back to life," Darren said. "Of course my father wanted me to suffer first so I spent about a millennium in there but he fished me out eventually. There are some things that can't be changed unfortunately." He sounded a little wistful and also it bit sad and I knew that it was because he was different. He couldn't go home now, not even if he wanted to.

"What happened to the other guy?" I asked, trying to change the topic away from the disturbing fact that Darren had actually died and come back to life. "How comes he attacked us last night?" Darren wrinkled his nose a bit and shrugged.

"Probably our dad screwing around with his head again," he said nonchanlently.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, perking up a bit. She had slumped slightly when Darren had said he had died but now she looked a little happier.

"Well…" Darren said, drawing the word out as if thinking about what he was going to say, "when the war of the Scars was going on, our dad had been screwing around with boths our lives. He made it so we both went to the Cirque Du Freak and he made it so that Mr Crepsley decided to make it a vampire and so on and so on. But for Steve it had been going on even longer. Having him collect horror books on vampiers and acquiring a book with a picture of Mr Crepsley in it. Those little things to lead up to the all out war he wanted. In essence, he's been messing up our lives all the time and so when we died, steve had a lot more to account to and I… didn't feel right about that." Darren looked down at his feet, his eyes distant as if remembering. "There was a moment… just before he delivered the final blow… when he found the part of him that was my friend. No, my brother. He found his humanity and I took that away from him to mess up my dad's plans and I felt guilty. All his life he had been messed around by some guy, never given a real chance at life. So I made a deal with him. Steve went back to the human world and I would be his stupid Lord of the Shadows." Darren's face twisted, showing his hatred of both the word and the monster he ahd become to help his brother. "I never thought tht he would try and re-awaken the vampaneze side of steve's nature in an attempt to get back at me for not doing what he wants."

"What is it, exactly, that your dad wants you to do?" I asked, trying to imagine what it must have been like for Darren. I couldn't imagine it. Darren gave a snort of laughter.

"Oh, you know, what every sadistic lord of time wants," he said sarcastically, "The end of the world."

"Um… out of interest…" Hermione began. Darren rolled his eyes in a _here we go again_ gesture. "How does one become a Lord of the Shadows if there wasn't really a victor of the war?" Darren's face twisted, suddenly looking haunted.

"Very painfully," he said flatly. That was the end to any conversation.

* * *

Mr Tiny's POV

I growled and resisted the urge to throw one of my brains at the scene in front of me. The idiot was learning how to use his powers. Fast. If anything it was of the utmost importance he couldn't do that. The last time I had checked up on Darren I had been making sure he had no idea of what I was plotting but then that Voldemort had ruined everything by sending my other son to attack the lowly wizards.

I sighed and got up from my chair. If anything it was time to give Voldemort a little more help but if I favoured Voldemort too much then the monsters, which were already threatening to break free, would actually get loose in the world. I would have to tread carefully from here on out. I could do nothing more for my favourite player in this magnificent show but I could do very little to the annoyance that was Darren. That boy was far too quick for my tastes. And what annoyed me even more was the cunning he seemed to have gotten from me. Of all the things to have inherited and he had inherited that. If he wasn't so brilliant, so useful then I would have killed him off long ago. But he was fun to play around with especially since I knew all of his strengths and weaknesses. Sadly he had already started to correct those, to feel around and gather what it was that he could do exactly.

I grinned at the memory of the creation of the Lord of the Shadows. Even after that stupid deal I had been forced to make it had all been worth it in the end.

_Flashback_

_I checked that everything was ready. Poison, operating table, scalpel, weak anaesthesia. Perfect. After this I would know not just what made Darren tick but I could show him the real meaning of pain. And all I had to do was sit back, cut him open and inject poison into his heart. Best job in the world. _

_Just at that moment Darren walked in. I had considered having him dragged in by my Little People but he had surprisingly complied with my wishes. Killing off the twins had been the best ploy I had thought of yet. _

_Darren didn't seem fazed by the lack of anything in the room to make him comfortable. He had obviously been expecting no luxuries. He frowned slightly at the straps on the table._

"_What are those for?" he asked looking at the straps suspiciously._

"_Oh nothing," I said. "Just in case."_

"_Of what?" That boy never missed a beat. Was I getting that predictable?_

"_This and that. Now all you have to do is drink this and it'll all be over," I said trying to make it sound convincing. Considering that if I didn't then I would have no Lord of the Shadows and no knowledge of Darren it was critical that he trusted me to some sort of length. Not that I didn't hate the whole idea of trust. I loathed trust._

_Darren sniffed the anaesthesia as if he thought it was a poison. He blinked a bit and then drank it. I grinned and pointed at the table. Even through the misty fug that I could see coming over Darren he still looked doubtfully at the table._

"_Come on boy we don't have all day. Unless you prefer me to do this on the floor," I growled at him. Now he was getting annoying to the point that I wished that I had someone else to do this on. He stumbled slightly to the table and practically collapsed on it. I smiled and picked up the scalpel. "Now this won't hurt a bit…" I said smiling as I dragged the scalpel through his skin. He screamed and I found myself laughing. This was both enjoyable and fun._

"_You said you wouldn't punish him anymore." The growl came from a corner of the room. I had forgotten that Evanna was in here._

"_I am not punishing him. There is no other way. I used the last anaesthesia I had on him. Be lucky that it was enough to get him this far out," I said. I vaguely wondered if she knew that that was a lie. There was plenty of anaesthesia in the medical cabinet. Not because I needed it but simply because I never used it. Why use anaesthesia when you can listen to the song of their screams?_

_I could almost growl in frustration when I reached the ribcage. The thing was always so fiddly that even if I had wanted to I couldn't destroy it to get to the heart. Evanna may be my daughter and weaker than I but she was no fool. And again she had inherited my cunning. She would make me pay at some point knowing that I would probably forget for a while. _

_Eventually I reached the heart. I picked up the syringe of poison relishing every moment of this. Sadly the only let down was that Darren's screams had subdued. He was in too much pain to scream. Or so he thought._

_I could feel the pulse getting weaker and for a moment I wondered if this would kill him. What would I do then? All of my plans would be shot to hell and I had to sort out Leonard before I did this to him. The deal would make it tricky to get anything much done with him. I shook my head and plunged the syringe down. The moment the poison entered Darren's screams returned with a vengeance. Delightful. I could almost laugh and dance to them. I smiled as I healed the flesh quickly to stem the blood flow. Darren writhed on the table as if by moving he could make the pain go away. I was practically knocked off of my feet by Evanna._

"_This wasn't part of the deal," she growled. I smiled at her._

"_It was. I just never told the boy that the change would be painful. I'd keep an eye on him. If he's too weak the poison would kill him," I said. She narrowed her eyes and then suddenly picked Darren up from the table and swept away. When I was sure she was too far away to hear I laughed. I swept a finger in the blood on the table. __**Mmmm A positive.**_

_End of flashback_

I could almost laugh at the thought. That blood was delicious. It had an odd slightly magical quality to it like the wizards except the magical potential was much weaker. I shook myself out of the memory. Now was not the time for thinking of blood types, however delicious each one was. Now was the time for watching my plan come to fruition and making sure that the idiot Voldemort did not mess up the plans I already had in place with those of his own. Shan would pay and so would the little Potter boy if he was lucky…

* * *

**Hey any of the above look familiar? Yeah I got a bit lazy at the end but I adapted it to this version and I actually liked this chapter but the question of when it would come back in again has now been answered. vancha shall be in this very soon and so will the vampaneze (hopefully). Action shall come soon!**

**By the way does anyone else feel the new review box is a bit in your face? I now understand why you might not want to review but please do if you can get yourself past the blaring REVEIW box.**


	18. The Plot Thickens

**Ok first things first, if things in this are spelt odd it's because I am epically tired and I don't really have a lot of time to finish this. If you have read some of my other stories you will be happy to know that this story is my no. 2 priorty behind homework. I am also deleting some of my stories because I have too many going on at once.**

**Ayway you probably want to shoot me for the long time it has taken me to update thise. The good news is that my freind really did read the last chapter, learnt her lesson and reviewed which was nice of her. The bad news is that, again, I am stuck without ideas of how to get to the end I want but I know how it is going to end which is really frustrating. I started this chapter pretty much straight after the last beut then deleted some because it didn't feel right and then forgot about it. I am sorry that it took me so long to update but if i didn't check it later then it will turn out like the last version of this. I am also going to delete my author's not because, honestly, it's sitting there just taking up space so it's going.**

**Other than that I have nothing else to say. I'm really busy with school and just life in general so these updates are going to be scattered but bear with me because you all deserve to have a finished story and that is what i am going to give you!**

**Right on with the story...**

* * *

Third Person

Vancha had been flitting for hours and he was tiring quickly. He had heard word of a great force preparing to attack the school of Hogwarts Witchcraft and Wizardry and although he himself had never known the misery of a school, he knew that they should be warned. The force was not just made up of wizards and Vancha dreaded another war. They had lost so many good men in the last war. Gavner, Kurda, Larten… Darren. Vancha closed his eyes and tried to shake the image of his young fallen comrade. He wasn't sure whether Darren lived or died in the final battle but he was afraid to find out.

He stopped by a lake in the middle of a forest. It was what the wizards called the Forbidden Forest and so he wouldn't be disturbed this way. Few people would ask questions and that was the way it had to be. Vancha frowned at the opposite side of the lake. A small pile of clothes, animal skins really, were neatly folded up and stuck in a pile by the bank. It was as if someone had decided to dump their clothes and take off naked as a wild man. Even in the vampire world that was strange.

Suddenly the surface of the lake rippled and a head rose from the water, flinging droplets from its eyes. Vancha reared back and stumbled into the shadows of the trees. Sunlight drifted down from the canopy above but Vancha made sure not to stand in them, planning to cover up soon and sleep but now this would keep him awake for hours. It didn't matter that the thing's skin wasn't vaguely purple anymore or that there wasn't a hint of red in its eyes as it moved round to take in its bearings. It was _him_. Vancha would never be able to forget those features. They had been permanently etched into his brain.

The man brushed the long strands of pale blonde hair out of his eyes. His hair was so pale it was almost white which seemed ironic on a man so evil. White was pure and this man was anything but. The man slowly sawn to the bank, taking long, lazy strokes as if un-aware or not caring that he was being watched. Upon reaching the bank he pulled himself out of the water and stood in the sunshine and stretched as if he had just stepped out of a bathing pool. A human may have averted its eyes but Vancha wasn't squeamish. He had seen plenty of naked people in his time and he was not going to take his eyes off of a formidable enemy just because they didn't have any clothes on.

The man didn't seem bothered that it was nearing winter, the human celebration of Halloween having been and gone, turning towards Yule and the new year. Vancha and many other vampires along with him didn't bother celebrating these times. It just meant another year to add to the tediously long life one must live as a creature of the night. It may have been sunny but the temperature was far from warm.

The man slowly began to dress himself and once this menial task was done he raked his long wet hair out of his face, tying it back into the familiar long pony-tail it was usually worn in. the man glanced around one last time before heading back into the woods to wherever he had come from. Vancha stayed where he was for a long time, assessing whether or not he would come back. Eventually he decided that, no, he was not returning and so, finding a dark corner he settled down for a nap and then continuing on with his journey.

* * *

Harry's POV

I wasn't quite sure what was happening. A storm raged outside the dormitory window and Darren had returned to the dormitory only moments before which was odd, considering that it was nearly midnight. Darren may have been a night person in theory but you wouldn't have believed it recently, with him returning to the dormitory by ten and being asleep well before half past. He had returned this night though on edge and whatever he was concerned about had followed into his dreams. He was tossing and turning in the bed, the sheets twisted around his feet, a sheen of sweat already covering his face. His lips moved silently, begging at some unseen thing to leave him alone. Sometimes he would cry out but for the rest he was quiet.

I wished that it were just Darren keeping me awake and the storm raging overhead that was the reason I felt so on edge. It wasn't. A moment before drifting off to sleep I thought I had heard the sound of laughter. Voldemort's laughter. I gulped and shuddered, suddenly not wanting to go to sleep to be plagued by dreams of Cedric's death. But it wouldn't do me any good to wake up the next day, totally out of it for lessons.

I sighed and tried to drift off when a great crash of thunder, followed by a strike of brilliant lightening, sounded overhead. The lightening lit the sky outside and I caught a brief glimpse of a figure emerging from the forest from my view-point of the window by Darren's bed (I had always wondered why he wanted to sleep by the window if he liked the dark). At the same moment Darren suddenly sat up in bed, eyes wide open, and shouted "Vancha!" Ron grunted in his sleep, Dean rolled over, Sean groaned and Neville let out an explosive snore. None of them woke.

"Who's Vancha?" I asked, sitting up myself. Darren didn't seem to hear, throwing back to covers and slipping on a t-shirt and disappearing out the door, not even bothering with shoes which were all right for him since he didn't feel the cold as much but to me it was freezing. It may not have snowed yet but it was gearing up to.

I slipped on my dressing gown and slippers and raced after Darren although I needn't have worried since he was waiting for me in the common room, albeit on the balls of his feet, restlessly shifting his weight as if anxious to get going. I thought about repeating the question but didn't bother. My wand was stuck in the dressing gown pocket but I stuck it up my sleeve in case the visitor was unfriendly. Darren didn't seem bothered, setting off the moment I reached the foot of the dormitory stairs.

I followed Darren through the castle wondering where we were going. It was only when we reached the doors that led to the grounds and Hagrid's cabin that I realised he was going to face the person I had seen in the storm. A loud crash sounded from the door and apparently this wasn't the first, since there were a small group of teachers already grouped by the door. Professor Dumbledore stood by the doors, preparing to open them and Professor Evanna stood at the back to the group, turning a blind eye when she noticed us. She didn't even seem bothered by the fact that something was trying to gain access to the school.

It was Professor McGonagall who noticed us first. She didn't seem sure of what to make of Darren who simply stalked past her but her gaze turned steely when she caught sight of me. "Mr Potter," she snapped, "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I wanted to know what all the noise was about," I replied, knowing that that wouldn't be a good enough answer for her but it was the truth all the same. She seemed to know this too but, since she knew the tendency I had of getting in trouble, she simply blew a long puff of air and deducted fifty points from Gryffindor for being about out of curfew (which had been placed more strictly around the school since Voldemort tried to gain access).

Darren had reached Dumbledore now and, almost as if he didn't notice the headmaster was there, reached around him and opened the door. There was a low gasp from the teacher's as a wet, filthy person practically flew through the doors, apparently having been gearing up to have another go of trying to get through the doors. Darren just gave a long sigh as if this was a common occurrence in his life.

"You know Vancha, it would be easier to just knock," he said tiredly. The man on the floor turned and gaped open mouthed at Darren for a long moment before suddenly exploding into noise.

"Darren!" the man shouted a wide smile on his face as he grabbed Darren by the shoulders and pulled him into a bear hug. Darren made a funny chocking sound and his nose wrinkled as if he had just stuck his nose in a rubbish bin.

"Nice to see you too," he choked out. "And even after a rain shower you still don't smell any sweeter," he muttered when the man let him go. I realised that both the man and Darren must have been friends since the man didn't actually let go of him, just let him pull back a bit.

"After your last fight with Leopard we thought you were dead!" the man carried on, ignoring any comment that Darren had made. "Where have you been?"

Darren pulled away from the man completely, a wry smile on his face and I noticed that his eyes didn't seem… dead anymore. There was a light in them that I had never seen before, like he had lost all hope and then suddenly, this filthy dirty man with his dripping animal skins and green hair had given him back all the hope he needed.

"To answer that you may want to look around you," Darren said mischievously. The man did just that, never letting go of Darren's arm. He seemed to take in the suits of armour, waiting teachers and moving portraits all in one swoop. His eyes then fixed on McGonagall and Darren suddenly moved well out of the way, backing up to where I was standing quicker than the eyes could follow.

"Hello sweetheart," the man said to her, spitting onto his hand and smoothing his hair back. I felt my jaw drop and McGonagall turned bright red, stammering something about this behaviour being inappropriate. Darren just took one look at both mine and McGonagall's faces and burst into peals of laughter. Professor Evanna was just shaking her head as if she had seen it all before. Dumbledore just looked on calmly, a single eyebrow raised. The man didn't seem to know what he had done wrong and turned to glare at Darren.

"What?" he asked. Darren just shook his head, still chuckling at what had just occurred.

"Never mind," he snickered. "Here, I'll give the tour." The man's face turned serious again and he shook his head.

"I don't have time for that. I don't think any of us do. As glad as I am to see you I have grave news," the man said. "Leopard's back. I've seen him." Darren's face fell and I wondered who this 'Leopard' was. I turned to face, Darren to ask him who 'Leopard' was, only to find that Darren looked not fearful, but thoughtful. His mind seemed to be working at a million miles an hour as he worked something out.

"If I tell you what happened," Darren began looking at the man, "will you re-think that ideal?" the man looked taken aback.

"Alright," the man said slowly, as if he wasn't sure. Darren nodded and led the man away leaving everyone in their wake with a lot of questions.

"Who was that?" I asked when I couldn't stand the silence any longer. Professor Evanna was the one to answer.

"The man's name is Vancha March and he is one of the leaders of the vampires," she answered calmly, still looking amused at what had occurred. "He and Darren are old friends." And with that said she turned and walked away. There was another long silence before McGonagall turned to face me.

"Back to bed Potter," she said, hinting that if I didn't I would be getting more points from Gryffindor. I just nodded and headed back up to the dormitory, ready to tell Hermione and perhaps Ron about what had just happened.

* * *

"Do you think that this Leopard could be the one who attacked us in the corridor?" Hermione asked as we walked to the Great hall together. I had woken later than usual to an empty dormitory. The ground outside was wet from the storm but it had turned to ice in the bitter cold. Grey clouds were rolling in this morning but it felt much more like a snowstorm than the thunderstorm the night before. Hermione was the only one waiting for me in the common room and so I had told her what had happened. She had seemed thoughtful, seeming to have forgotten about her plight to find out more about Mr Tiny.

"I don't know," I said as we descended the last flight of stairs and walked into the Great Hall. "This Vancha seems to be Darren's friend and he was sure that this Leopard was a threat." Hermione frowned as she sat down at the Gryffindor table and I sat beside her, grabbing some bacon from the pile in front of me.

"But you say that Darren questioned this?" she asked. I nodded and was struck by a sudden thought.

"Hey, speaking of which, where is he?" I hadn't seen Darren at all, not even in the dormitory. I had thought that he had gone to breakfast but I couldn't spot him anywhere in the Great Hall, at the teacher's table or otherwise. Even Professor Evanna was missing from breakfast, her empty chair between Snape and Umbridge's empty seat making the gap even wider between Snape and Trelawney. For a moment I wondered if he had gone to sleep somewhere else instead of going back to the dormitory but then thought against it. He always slept in the dormitory. No matter whether he was wanted to be there or not (I had a feeling it was because the bed was comfortable and who knows when he last slept in a bed).

Hermione seemed just as concerned, looking around her as much as I did.

"What are you two looking for?" a voice asked us from across the table. I turned to find Ron staring at us as if we were mad. It had been so long since I had spoken to Ron I had almost forgotten that we were friends, especially with his aversion of Darren.

"Why does it suddenly matter to you who we're looking for?" I asked coldly. It wasn't as if he had been friendly towards me either the last time we had spoken (then again that conversation had been on vampires). Ron looked taken aback and then scowled.

"Don't tell me that you're still running around with the vampire?" he snapped. It was like the Triwizard tournament all over again.

"He has a name you know," Hermione snapped just as angrily. The pair of them had been at each other's throats the whole year and it hadn't been helped at all by me. I thought about leaving them to it, feeling one of their monumental arguments approaching but before I could, Dumbledore arrived. Since so many people had been absent this morning I had barely noticed that he had been missing too. At his arrival though, the entire Hall fell silent. Dumbledore walked between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables, ignoring any looks sent his way, and turned to face everyone once he reached the teacher's table.

"I bring both good and bad news," Dumbledore began. I felt my stomach drop, feeling that this had something to do with the visitor from last night. "Voldemort is back and he has brought with him a great many more followers than ever before. I know that many of you may not believe me having read the Daily Profit," here, his gaze fell upon Seamus who glared back at him, "but please take warning. Voldemort will not take mercy and I have proof of his return. He was witnessed by a visitor who came to warn us of him last night. This is also our good news. Thanks to our somewhat warm welcome to their Prince," another glare, this time directed in Ron's general direction, "the vampires have agreed to help our cause. They will be guarding the gates of Hogwarts from two days' time, keeping you all safe from harm. Even so, anyone found to be breaking curfew from tonight onwards will be risking severe punishment and perhaps even death at Voldemort' hands. You will all be escorted between lessons to your next lesson. You will not go anywhere without anyone else and you will stay in your dormitories unless given reason otherwise. That is all." With that, Dumbledore sat down and helped himself to breakfast. Quiet whispers started up, finally blowing back into the normal volume of noise.

"This is bad," Hermione whispered. "If the vampires are involved it means that someone equal to them has to be working for Voldemort. We need to find Darren." I nodded in agreement but Ron curled his lip slightly.

"I won't say I'll be joining you but good luck," he said rather begrudgingly. I nodded to him and both I and Hermione left the breakfast table knowing that we were breaking all the new rules that had just been put into place. Hopefully, we wouldn't be noticed until it was too late for them to do anything to stop us.

* * *

Third Person

Steve stood at the edge of the woods watching a pair of students run across the grass towards a hut. They were familiar to him; in fact they were the pair who had been unfortunate enough to have been present when he had lost control. The boy paused for a moment and looked towards the forest but Steve knew that he couldn't be seen. He had hidden himself too well. The girl tugged at the boy's sleeve and dragged him into the hut. Steve watched this with curiosity, wondering what it was that they were so afraid of. Like so many times before, Steve suddenly found himself thinking of Darius back home.

Before he had left for this mad mission, Steve had visited Annie and Darius. They had moved in with Darren's parents for safety reasons, which were not unreasonable considering the circumstances. The journey had been considerably shorter due to the fact that he had decided to run instead of driving and arriving there, he had met them in the centre of town, claiming to have gotten the train and would need to catch another before nightfall. In truth, he had a feeling he may never see them again. They had had a great day at the beach, eating cotton candy, throwing stones in the sea and generally playing happy families. But it hadn't lasted and eventually Steve had had to leave. Even seeing these children now made a sense of paternal protectiveness come over him. He had no intention of harming these children, just those he deemed to be worthy of death. Like Voldemort.

Technically he wasn't meant to be here. He had been sent to gather supplies but both Steve and the death eaters knew that the world would end before he would truly begin to help them and so they planned to end the world. Then again he could do what he wanted because none of their punishment spells worked and if they hurt any of his or Annie's family they knew they would die. For him, it was a win-win situation.

Something moved in the corner of his eye and Steve turned to see the other child from that night exit the school. It was the one who had attacked, overcome and then let him go. Steve had respect for the child since he was a far better fighter than Steve could ever hope to be and could show mercy when Steve couldn't. He thought back to the bath he had had the night before, washing away all traces of the man's blood from his last 'meal'. Steve hated the fact that he had to drink blood to survive. At one point he had tried not to drink but eventually the thirst had overcome him and he had attacked a person in the street. Luckily it was a homeless man in an alley but that didn't stop Steve from feeling guilt. He was a weakling and he was a coward, mad or not. He couldn't even protect his family!

The boy had sat on the steps and put his head in his hands. He looked tired and beat down. There was a sense of hopelessness about him, a sense of despair that came when you tried to tell the truth and yet no one really believed him. Something moved inside him and the paternal feeling returned along with something else. A kind of brotherly bond for the boy that Steve couldn't explain. He found his feet taking him in the direction of the boy, out into the open. He expected to feel exposed and in danger but all he could feel was anger that no one would believe the boy and that brotherly need to comfort him. Somehow he managed to reach the boy without being spotted by anyone.

It took the boy a while to look up. When he did his eyes opened in shock which summed up what Steve was feeling. Because the person in front of him was none other than his dead friend, Darren Shan.

* * *

**(Gasp) Cliffhanger! I have no words for this and I'm actually too tired to have any... Sorry.**


	19. Kidnaps, Prisons and Snowflakes

**Wow, this is amazing. I've updated recently TWICE! Mind you I've had little else to do other than write fanfiction since my mother has been ill and then I was so tired I could have been dead yesterday... so I've had a lot of free time on my hands even though I'm in the middle of my GCSEs. By the way I will probably either finish this before or a LONG time after November as I have sixth form open evenings and mock exams all in that period so I will probably disappear at said point. **

**Ok now that I have that off my chest I would like to say thank you to all those who reviewed Chapter 17 because you are awesome (did people get confused because I took the author's note down?). And now for the disclaimer since I was so tired the last time I updated I forgot to do it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Darren Shan for those that I know will be stupid enough to think that I do (and trust me. There are a lot of them in my form.)**

* * *

Third Person

Steve felt as if the world had just frozen around him. It was as if he had walked into one of those corny film moments when the main character sees someone and the whole world just stops. At least, that was what it felt like. Darren seemed to be just as shocked, his mouth hanging open slightly as it always had when something had shocked him out of deep thought. It was such a familiar facial feature that Steve had to reach out and touch him just to make sure that he was real. Darren didn't seem to notice, just staring at him with a mixture of shock and amazement that he probably wouldn't have noticed a bomb go off next to him.

The moment was broken by a sudden shout across the field. The pair from before had walked out of the hut and both Darren and Steve turned their heads to see that they were racing towards them (albeit at human speed). Steve thought for a second before grabbing hold of Darren, pulling him so that his ear was next to his mouth.

"Explanation. Tonight. You owe me that," he whispered before dropping him. Darren no longer looked shocked and nodded his head when Steve met his eyes. Then he raced away, leaving Darren and a past that he no longer knew if it was real, behind him.

* * *

Harry's POV

There was a knot of fear in my stomach that hadn't been helped by the stranger when he had grabbed hold of Darren. I was sure that he was the one that had attacked a few nights earlier but the problem was, I hadn't thought that he would return so soon. Nor had I expected him to attack in broad daylight. That was a nasty surprise.

"Are you all right?" I panted, trying to catch my breath from sprinting from Hagrid's hut all the way over here. I and Hermione had decided to ask Hagrid if he had seen Darren since he hadn't been in the Great Hall either and he usually knew everything that was going but Hagrid, while being happy that they had visited him, hadn't known where Darren was. That was when we looked out of the window and spotted him and the stranger right on the steps to Hogwarts. After that we had said a hasty goodbye to Hagrid and sped off to help him.

Darren, on the other hand, just looked surprised to see us. I noticed that he looked down trodden and generally how I was used to seeing him. The spark of hope from the night before was long gone and there were dark shadows under his eyes, hinting that he hadn't slept all night. I wondered where his friend Vancha was and what had made him return to looking this way.

"I'm fine. What did you think was wrong with me?" he asked, his voice giving nothing away.

"That man…" Hermione whispered her eyes wide. "He was the one who attacked us the other night. He's working with Voldemort." Darren blinked and glanced in the direction that the man had disappeared.

"Not really," he said almost conversationally. "Now if you don't mind I need to stretch my legs before I fall asleep."

"How would you fall asleep on stone steps?" I asked despite myself. I still had a ball of fear curling in my stomach and I felt restless, knowing that something bad was going to happen. The guy would come back and kill us all; he would return with reinforcements, he'd inform Voldemort of Hogwarts' weaknesses… The list in my head was endless and I found it hard to push it away but, unlike Hermione, I could hide the fear I was feeling. She still looked a little terrified and Darren sent her a reassuring smile.

"There are a lot more uncomfortable places to fall asleep and I've slept in many of them. And you have very comfy steps." He then held his arm out to Hermione in a very old fashioned gesture, even for a guy who was thirty two. Hermione blinked and then took it as we set off through the grounds of Hogwarts.

"So where are we going?" I asked, still feeling on edge.

"Nowhere really," Darren said. "Just need to clear my head and wake myself up."

"So what's with the arm?" Darren glanced down at his arm where Hermione was clinging to it, looking just a little happier. He shrugged.

"You pick things up from two to eight hundred year old men in a mountain," he said nonchalantly. I blinked but decided not to question any of this since I knew that it would either upset Darren since he was talking about his past or send him into one of his long silences where he wouldn't talk to you for hours.

We walked in companionable silence through the grounds of Hogwarts and for the first time I realised that I had never done this before. All the times I had been out here had been because I wanted lunch outside on a hot day or because I was running away or to some place (usually lessons). I noticed the heather growing on some of the rocks around the lake and the views from the mountain-top we were on. The clouds had suddenly burst and great white, fluffy snowdrops fell from the sky, obscuring both the view and Hogwarts. Darren didn't seem to mind the snow but soon both I and Hermione were shivering and we were suddenly back at the steps to the school.

"You two need to get to Transfiguration before I get murdered for having you skip class," he said with a smile. He looked a little happier now and there was the tiniest glow of hope in his eyes again.

"What about you?" Hermione asked, rubbing her arms to get some warmth back into them.

"I'm going to catch up on some sleep. I think I'm going to need it," he said and something told me that it had something to do with the stranger. Hermione nodded and we began to run towards Transfiguration. I stopped at the foot of the stairs though, thinking for a moment.

"Darren?" I called back to him. He was closing the doors to keep the snowstorm out but he turned towards me with a curious look in his eyes. "Who was that on the steps with you?" Something flitted across Darren's face but I couldn't tell what it was.

"An old friend," was his only answer.

* * *

Third Person

They came late in the night. The Fidelius charm on the house didn't work on them and so the house was in plain sight. The last house that they had looked at like this had been burned to the ground and they had stopped for a moment to think on fallen warriors. The place had been the site of a great battle before the town had been built. In fact there had only been an inn there at the time and both clans had fought the humans in a last act of harmony and survival before the treaty. The town had seemed to be a site of mourning for the Wizarding community too.

The visitors weren't particularly keen on their mission. They didn't like being ordered around by a man who thought himself better than them even though their Lord barely listened to him. In fact, their Lord no longer seemed to fight, even with the other clan. They had all come a simple agreement. This would be one of the few jobs they did and they would not harm the young ones. They were proud, valiant people, not murderers. This was not in their nature, no matter what anyone said. They fought amongst themselves not with children.

The house in question that they were visiting was dark. Not the kind of dark where the curtains were closed and simply needed opening. This was a house that even the sun didn't dare touch, for all the evil that had been committed inside of it. It was a place that even the visitors would not have stayed in, no matter how desperate they were but it was a place that they would have to enter.

Someone in the recent past had tried to cheer the place up and had failed miserably. The place still reeked of foul magic and it would have driven even the sanest of them mad to have stayed here longer than an hour. Unlike wizards, they could feel the evil thrumming in the air here and it was not a pleasant feeling.

There was a scuffle from the end of the entrance corridor. A man appeared holding one of the measly twigs that were supposed weapons. The visitors contemplated that to humans they were weapons but to those who were hardened against the likes of Tiny they were barely more than the wood that they had been made from. The man shouted one of the ridiculous words that usually preceded a miniature fireworks display. The visitors didn't bat an eyelid and simply reached out and grabbed him. The man was visibly shocked and gave little struggle (probably because his mind had been blown by the fact that there were creatures that could resist the effects of their 'spells').

Taking one last look around them, they bundled the man out of the door and flitted into the night. Their master would be proud.

* * *

Darren's POV

I woke with the distinct feeling that something had just gone horribly wrong. Something drastic had happened and I could feel it, deep down inside of me. A shadow in the corner of my eyes flickered and jumped and I mentally cursed at my inability to control them. They acted to whatever I felt and it creeped out whoever I was with and I creeped myself out with the ability to even control them. It was not natural.

At the moment I was lying in my bed in the Gryffindor dormitory. I had to admit that it was the most comfortable thing that I had ever had the pleasure of sleeping on (certainly better than coffins). I was alone since it was the middle of the day but the snowstorm outside hadn't let up. I sat up and stretched, trying to work out why I felt so unsettled. Perhaps there had been an attack on the castle? But the only one able to take the castle was Steve and he was even more confused than I was.

I felt guilty now that I thought back to it. I hadn't planned to see Steve… well, ever again. I wanted him to have a second chance at life without having to worry about what I was doing but now… there was no chance of that and I would have to tell him everything. Even the bad parts (which in his history was every part). But first I had to find a way in which to protect him from the approaching vampires. Vancha would be leaving tonight to meet up with the vampires at the edge of the mountains where he had left them and I had twenty-four hours to explain things to Steve, solve this new war and stop a new feud between the vampires and vampaneze. And they said being a vampire was boring.

I sighed and decided that it would be a good idea to get changed. I was still wearing the t-shirt and jeans that I had fallen asleep in last night, having been too tired to bother changing. I took a shower and pulled on fresh clothes, feeling slightly better. Vancha hadn't believed my story last night which had been both annoying and depressing. I realised now that the vampires wouldn't be able to change the way that they felt about Steve. He had created a lasting impact that would never fade and they would no longer be able to forgive as I had (which should have been the other way around the way our lives went). I then decided to see what Harry was up to at the moment. There was less to worry about when it came to him.

The moment I walked out of the dormitory I suddenly felt dizzy and had to catch the doorframe to stay standing. This was not normal. I had never had any dizzy spells (other than when I had not had enough blood to drink) in my life. For a moment I thought I saw my father before the floor seemed to spin away from me. Instead I was standing in a forest, probably the Forbidden Forest, facing the strangest looking man on the planet. He was so pale he could have been a corpse and he had slits for both eyes and nostrils. His fingers were bony and he was so thin that he looked as if he had never eaten in his life.

There was another man standing in front of him. He had dark shaggy hair and was also pale (but in comparison to the other guy he was tan). There were dark shadows under his eyes and a trace of fear in them. He faced the pale man in restraints and he was held in place by two vampaneze although neither of them looked happy about it. Steve was sitting on a log, eating an apple of all things, watching the scene with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. I had the distinct feeling that a part of him was enjoying this and that he did not like this fact.

"Hello Sirius," the pale man rasped and I cocked my head curiously. He sounded like a snake and although I knew plenty of things about snakes this man looked much more like a dead man than anything else.

"Hello Voldemort," the man- Sirius- replied curtly. If I didn't know better about the life of a vampire I would have said that the man would have made a brilliant vampire. He was brave, he didn't show fear when he felt it and he was clearly loyal to his people (not including the ones around him). "To what do I owe this lovely visitation?"

"Why, you are the guest of honour," Voldemort said, spreading his bony arms wide. I curled my lip at the man's attempt to appear menacing. Steve could do a better job right now. "You've arrived just in time to watch me kill your beloved Godson." Ah, so he was going to kill Harry. I wasn't exactly sure what that would accomplish since Harry was only a child but that didn't matter to me much. Other than the fact that I would have to stop him.

"They're a wonderful people aren't they?" a voice suddenly said beside me. I froze knowing just who that voice belonged to. I turned and there he was my not-so-great of a father Mr Tiny.

"Really? You're rallying your hopes on a man who thinks he's a snake?" I asked, surprised that he would have sunk this low.

"Oh, yes, really Darren. You don't seem to understand how many delightful tricks young master Voldemort has up his sleeves. In fact you've underestimated how many I have up mine." My Tiny didn't seem bothered by the fact that I wanted to rip his head off.

"What's the point of this?" I snapped, not feeling like playing his games right now. "Why show me what Voldemort is trying to do?"

"Oh, I'm not showing you anything. You've gotten yourself into a right mix and even if Voldemort fails, there's still going to be a beautiful war. The War of the Scars mark two." Mr Tiny smiled at this, a grin that would have left a villain much more accomplished than Voldemort screaming. "Except this time you're not going to be in it."

"You can't kill me." Of all the things that I had learned with Evanna, this was one of them. If he killed me himself, then the universe would release the monsters upon him.

"I have no plans to kill you. I'm just making sure that you can't escape and I thought that you might like to have some entertainment." And with those last words he disappeared. A knot curled in my stomach as I realised that I wasn't anywhere. There was just black roiling darkness behind me and nothing else. I was trapped and there was nothing I could do except watch as the world fell to ruins.

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**Sorry that this chapter wasn't as long as the last one but to be honest it was only a filler chapter. Thankfully this story is actually nearly finished (I think you can all tell why). And some more action has finally made it into this story (it seems to be very angsty on Darren's side).**


	20. Complications and Messages

**Ok, I understand that it's been a shit long time since I updated this and I'm sorry but really? No reviews? I understand that some people are too lazy to update but i updated TWICE in the space of two weeks and NO ONE commented. It was really down-heartening if I'm honest, especially because my account tells me that HUNDREDS of people visited and NOT ONE could be bothered to even say 'I hate this' or something. I know that this story seems to be dragging out a bit because I have like no time to update and I pretty much lost this chapter when my memory stick went missing for an age, but I still hoped that people would be interested in the two new chapters from a while ago... that was just mean.**

**So, anyway, rant over, here's the next chapter. Really hope that someone will put in the effort to say whether or not they liked it.**

**Disclaimer: Yeah. I don't own Harry Potter or Darren Shan.**

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Third Person

Something was not right. Steve had been waiting for over an hour and Darren had still not arrived. He needed to warn Darren of the danger that his new friends were in. Two days. That was how long they had until Voldemort moved forward with his plans on killing Harry Potter once and for all. Although the vampaneze had agreed between them that they would not participate in this fight, Hogwarts was still outnumbered by the sheer number of Death Eaters (how they ate death Steve was still to work out) that were hungry for blood. And the only person who would be able to help them was Darren.

Who was not here.

Steve paced the clearing where he had agreed to meet with Darren and glanced towards the sky again for the third time. It was getting close to dawn which meant that there was little time left. Tomorrow night was the last night of preparation before the so called attack. The vampaneze were leaving tomorrow night and Darren needed to be warned now and yet he was missing which was not like Darren at all.

Steve frowned trying to think back. While it was important to warn Darren, he had originally wanted to meet with Darren to ask about his past. What was real within all these made up memories? Why could he not remember that he was still alive? He was missing the bigger picture and something at the back of his mind told him that if he could remember that past then he would know exactly what had happened to Darren. He just had to remember.

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Harry's POV

I trudged reluctantly back to the dormitory, wondering where on earth Darren was. How could one person, whilst being re-known for going off to think, avoid even his half-sister who didn't know where he was either? Darren may have been a vampire but even he could not hide from Evanna. Which meant that if Evanna didn't know where he was then something was completely wrong.

I sighed and was about to give the password to the Fat Lady when something flashed in the corner of my eye. I frowned and turned towards where I had seen it only to see a shadow moving further away from me.

"Well?" asked the Fat Lady impatiently, waiting for me to give her the password.

"Err… never mind," I said quickly before pursuing the shadow down the corridor. Five minutes later I was standing in the Charms corridor with no sign of the shadow. I frowned. I had been certain that this was where the shadow had been heading for but there was nothing here. Then I heard the sound of raised voices.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing here?" I turned at the sound of Vancha's voice, wondering what he was doing in the Charms corridor. In fact, I hadn't seen Vancha since he had first arrived at the castle although this was probably because he was a fully-blooded vampire and they would burn in the sun (even though Evanna had been adamant that full vampires didn't burst into flame the moment they entered the sunlight, the image was still hard to get rid of and replace with another). I turned towards the door which was ajar where the voices were coming from, wishing that I had brought the Invisibility cloak with me.

"I'm trying to help!" I held back a gasp as I caught a brief flash of pale blonde hair. If I hadn't seen the guy before then I would have thought that he was Lucius Malfoy or a relative of Malfoy's (although that could be possible). I had only seen hair like that once before… and it hadn't been a pleasant experience the first time.

"Trying to help my arse! The last time I saw you, you were trying to cut Darren in half! You killed Larten!"

"Excuse me?" The voice that asked this was indignant but also confused. I remembered Darren mentioning something like this before, something about his father screwing with his head. And Darren had given the attacker a name. Steve.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Vancha didn't seem convinced, no matter what Darren had told him. I wondered if Darren had given Vancha the entire story.

"No. I. Don't. I came here to give you a warning for someone called Harry Potter."

"Like I'm going to believe that."

"You must."

"Why should I trust you? You have caused the deaths of many close friends, one of which was almost Darren. How am I supposed to trust you?" Vancha sounded almost defiant as well as tired. He didn't sound as if he believed Steve either though.

"I wouldn't have come otherwise. Just tell him that Voldemort will be attacking at night two days from now."

"And let me guess…" Vancha's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "You and your posse of vampaneze are going to join in the fun."

"No. We might kill when we feed and have different beliefs to you, but we don't harm children."

"Funny. You didn't think twice about killing Shancus."

"I don't know who you're talking about."

"I think you do."

"If I did, would I have come to you?" There was a long silence after this. I was still reeling from the revelation about the attack that Voldemort was proposing. And knowing Voldemort, he probably would.

"Get out." There were no more words after this. I backed into a corner behind a suit of armour and waited. Only Vancha left the classroom, looking suitably annoyed but also wary. I wondered if he knew the danger that Voldemort posed.

A long time later I stood up and made my way back to the Gryffindor Common Room, still trying to process the information that I had just learnt. I wondered why the guy had gone to Vancha instead of coming to warn me instead. What was the point of going to someone who doesn't trust a word out of your mouth than someone who might give you a chance? It didn't make sense.

Since it was late, the common room was empty. I pulled my Transfiguration from my bag and then thought twice. I could do it tomorrow since it was a Saturday. There were more important things to do than to think about Transfiguration homework. I soon wished that I had done the homework.

_I was dreaming that much I was sure about. I was standing in a part of the Forbidden Forest that I had never been before, but I instinctively knew that that was where I was. In the centre of the clearing, surrounded by Death Eaters was Sirius. I hadn't tried to talk to him since sending him a letter about my suspicions of Darren but it was too late now. There was a fresh cut on Sirius' forehead and he stared at the horribly familiar figure before him in defiance._

"_You'll never get away with this Voldemort," Sirius growled. "Dumbledore will stop you."_

"_It doesn't matter what Dumbledore will do anymore. I have the chance to kill Potter and my new benefactor has removed any chance of my losing to anyone." I felt a horrible lurch at the mention of a benefactor but I didn't know who Voldemort could possibly mean. It didn't matter anyway at the moment._

"_If you lay one hand on my god-son…" Sirius growled but he never got the chance to finish. Voldemort began to laugh, a horrible sound that was somewhere between a snake hiss and a screech._

"_And you'll do what?" Voldemort taunted. "I have a legion of vampires at my command and all my loyal Death Eaters. And what do you have? A bunch of Aurors who are written off as either insane or liars." I winced, knowing it was true. And when Voldemort attacked the next day, everyone would blame me or Dumbledore, stating that we were trying to make it seem as if Voldemort really were back and trying to take the Minister's job._

_Sirius was growling under his breath as one of the Death Eaters came up with a raised wand. It was Lucius Malfoy. He gave Sirius a smile as if he were a dear friend and not someone he was going to try and kill._

"_Now why don't we have a little fun until it's time to attack, Sirius?" Voldemort hissed. After that all I could hear was screaming…_

I yelped and sat bolt upright in bed. I had never had a dream as vivid as that before but I still knew that somewhere in the dark canopy of the Forbidden Forest, my godfather was being tortured until his untimely death two nights from now. Then again, everyone would be dead two nights from now.

I sighed and pushed the covers away. It was still early morning, the sun still hidden underneath the horizon. Just as I decided that I was going to do some of that Transfiguration homework that McGonagall had set, I noticed the book sitting on Darren's bed. The bed hadn't been slept in during the night but someone must have been here. The book hadn't been on the bed when I had arrived.

I frowned and picked it up. The book was open to the page where the creepy man in yellow Wellington's was watching over a bunch of short people dressed in blue robes. Mr Tiny, Darren's father. Why had someone left the book open on this page?

And then I noticed the writing on the edge.

Whoever had written in the book had childish hand-writing, scruffy and almost illegible, as if they had been out of practise for a really long time. But if it was who I think it was then that would make sense. There were only two words on the page. They read simply as:

HELP ME.

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Evanna took her time analysing the writing in the book. In the end she sighed and looked up from the book as if she had seen it all before and had no wish to see anything again.

"It is against the rules for me to help you, but you are right. He has been taken and it was done by our father. But there is nothing I can do," she stated as she shut the book. I scowled and shook my head.

"I'm not stupid. I know you can't help me directly but is there anything in the rules that say that you can't help me indirectly. And technically you wouldn't be helping me, you would be helping your brother." I glared at her stubbornly and she glared right back.

"I could help Darren but there is nothing that the pair of you can do anyway. Vancha does not believe that Steve may have changed; Steve himself doesn't even know about his own past, my father knows every twist and turn in this game and Darren barely has any control over his own powers. He would have no wish to use them now." With that Evanna stood up and placed the book in her own bookcase. "Forget about this book, Harry and you will have all the answers. I will do what I can for Darren but if I do then you must convince Vancha that he must work with Steve to get the wizarding world out of this."

I blinked and stared at her. Was she helping me or not? Evanna twisted and sent me a glare which stated that I had out-stayed my welcome with her and I stood up and left. In the space of time in her office I had been told that rescuing Darren was a lost cause that Evanna couldn't help but she was going to, that I had to convince Vancha and the man named Steve to work together and I had lost the book which had all the answers in. And I had thought that yesterday was a productive day.

I sighed and started to wander towards the dungeons. If I couldn't find out why Vancha hated Steve then what chance did I have of making them work together? There had to be something I could do to make Vancha believe that Steve was different now. I just had to figure out how.

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**Please review this. I'm kind of begging now because I really want to know what people think about this.**


	21. Truce

**Ok, before we even start this I would like to say thank you to everyone who actually reviewed these chapters! It was nice to find that people were giving feedback but I feel like I'm now going to disappoint a few people.**

**I am very sorry that this chapter is short. I understand that since I've keep going away for a while you all want to see longer chapters, stuff worthy of having to wait so long for it and I feel like a bit of a let down because I'm not really keeping up with that. But I promise the next couple of chapters _will_ be longer. Which is also part of my other news.**

**This story is nearly finished. In fact there will only be TWO more chapters (I promise you and myself) in this story and perhaps an epilogue. You will probably all kill me for how I end to finish this because a major character does not make it, unfortunately. I cried a little too when I planned it, but I will say no more.**

**I'm afraid I don't know when the next update will be because I'm doing my GCSE's. HOWEVER, I only have two more exams left until I am finished with Year 11 forever! This means I will have more writing time on my hands although I seem to be writing more and more fanfics and will hopefully be finishing and reposting some of my old ones, but we will see. Anyway, I'm sure you all want to actually read this chapter instead of reading me waffle on with excuses as to why this is a kind of filler chapter before the end (I swear, will give longer updates).**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Darren Shan or Harry Potter. It would be awesome if I did.**

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Darren's POV

I paced. It was one of the dullest things I could possibly be doing at this moment in time but it was all I could think of doing. Not much was really going on at the moment. Well, nothing that I was really interested in anyway. Steve was talking to his vampaneze, telling them that they would be leaving that night and Voldemort was off prattling to his death eaters (really confusing name because as far as I knew it was impossible to eat death) about how he would win this war and rid the world of Muggles. I got the feeling that my father had been whispering in his ear for a long time. Did he _always_ have a back-up plan?

It didn't matter at the moment. I just hoped that Harry would find the message I left for him in the book earlier.

It was interesting, finding out what these powers entailed, especially now that I had all this time on my hands perversely. It was almost fun if you didn't count the fact that I was playing with deadly forces which could possibly destroy the world if I let them get at me. I had discovered that any shadow was mine to control and it had taken some time to perfect the art of getting one particular shadow to be able to leave a message. I wasn't sure why I picked the book. It just seemed like a sensible thing to do. Leave a cryptic message in a cryptic book made sense to me, if maybe perhaps not to the rest of the world. Getting writing materials for my shadow to write with had been simple. My dormitory mates had huge stashes of quills and spare ink for use throughout the year. I only felt a little guilty for stealing some of Ron's, not that either of us was particularly friendly towards each other.

This prison, whilst annoying, was also rather helpful. I was able to see that Vancha spent most of his time under my bed (a little creepy considering I thought he slept in the dungeons. Why was he even under my bed in the first place?) And that Ron actually hated me because his family had bad dealings with rogue vampires. I shuddered at that thought and hoped that this rivalry would come to an end after this war. I knew that trouble was coming. This was only the calm before the storm.

I paced up and down again, my attention fixed on Sirius and Voldemort. The death eaters hadn't done anything to Sirius yet but I got the feeling that they were leading up to something. They were setting a trap, luring Harry in to kill him. And with few voices of reason behind him and Evanna unable to directly help (although the fact that she was trying to find a way out for me made me think that I wasn't the only one who had inherited our father's cunning), he would most likely make a wild run for his godfather. I could understand since Sirius was Harry's last relative (the things you find out from asking portraits and stalking ghosts. I was amazed at how _chatty_ they all were. You would have thought that _someone_ spoke to them in the last hundred years or so) but it didn't stop this course of action from being brash and under-thought. Harry had no plan and had no warning of what my father was actually planning. And I had a horrible feeling about what was coming.

_One, two, three, four… One, two, three, four…_ Four paces were about as far as I could walk before being engulfed by darkness which, although not scary, was not exactly comfortable. I might have powers over shadows but it still didn't mean that I was completely at ease in the pitch darkness. Just as I turned to pace another four paces a light filled the darkness.

_Darren…_ It was Evanna! Her voice sounded far away, which gave me the funny feeling that I only had a short amount of time before I would never be able to leave. This in mind I rushed at the light, without a second thought.

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Third Person

Ron was feeling sorry for himself. Harry and Hermione had rushed off somewhere after Harry had some dream about Sirius and neither had bothered to include. They had muttered something about the Forbidden Forest, Hermione trying to get Harry to listen but Harry, as usual, was having none of it. He had shouted at her and run off, Hermione following, both forgetting to even think about him. Ron felt as if he had been let down.

He scowled as he found himself in the library. Of all the places he could end up, he ended up in the library! He _hated_ the library! It was where Hermione spent most of her time and where he and Harry and Hermione had had some of their greatest moments. And then that bloody vampire had come in and split them apart. Ron couldn't believe that he had lost so many friends recently. No one was bothered about Ronald Weasley anymore. He was just the one that used to hang out with Potter. He one who had fallen out of favour. They spent all their time wandering around with the vampire who didn't spare a thought for Ron or _his_ feelings. _Some Prince_ he thought.

As Ron turned to leave he was almost ploughed over by someone trying to get into the library. Ron let out a shout as they both went tumbling to the floor.

"Watch where you're bloody going!" Ron shouted, before realising that the person he had been shouting at was actually the vampire he had just been thinking about. What was his name? Darren.

"Huh?" he said, looking around and frowning as he didn't see who he probably wanted to see. "Oh, sorry." The vampire reached out a hand which Ron ignored and pushed himself to his feet.

"If you're looking for Harry and Hermione they ran off. Kept muttering about Snuffles. Thought you would have been with them," Ron muttered spitefully, a tiny amount of glee entering his heart from the fact that he hadn't been the only one left behind. Apparently, Darren didn't think this was good news.

"He did WHAT/" he shouted, his eyes wide. Ron stared at the frantic look that he was being given as the vampire took him by the shoulders. "How long ago?"

"Don't touch me!" Ron cried, struggling to get out of the vampire's grip. Darren loosened his grip but didn't let him go.

"How long ago, Ronald?" Darren growled, his eyes glowing red slightly. Ron gulped, getting the feeling that this was dangerous territory.

"I don't know! An hour ago maybe…" He trailed off, unhappy that he didn't know any more than that. Darren took a deep breath and let him go.

"I need your help. And so does Harry," he added as he noticed Ron beginning to inch away. Ron stopped then. Harry might have forgotten him but he wasn't going to forget his friendship with Harry just yet.

"What is it?" Ron asked, an old worry about Harry clawing its way out of its hole in his chest.

"Voldemort has Sirius," Darren said, ignoring Ron's flinch and questioning look. "It'll take too long for me to explain how I know that so you'll just have to trust me. The point is that this is a trap. The vampaneze leave tonight and Voldemort plans to attack tomorrow, but if harry knows about Sirius he'll just attack now. And Voldemort has an entire army of death eaters out there!"

"I'll help but please!" Ron cried. "Stop. Saying. His. Name!" Darren looked confused but said nothing, taking off down the corridor, a nod of understanding to Ron. Ron didn't say anything else and simply took out his wand and ran after Darren. For the first time he wasn't afraid of the vampire. In fact, now all he wanted to do was help him save Harry.

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**Yeah, all I can say is please review. I actually update faster with reviews than without them. No joke.**


	22. The beginning of the end

**I can feel the hatred already. I have no words for this other than, thank you everyone for reading this (although still no reviews). I would especially like to thank iluvstarwars4ever because, although reviewing The Day Everything Changed, they still reminded me that people actually _read_ this and don't just skip it. They inspired me to finish this although you will all hate me, especially the Darren Shan fandom, most likely. So I'm going to leave now. Quickly.**

**Please review and enjoy! Or not as the case may be with this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own Darren Shan and Harry Potter.**

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Harry's POV

I ran. There were no other words that I could use to express my desperation, anger and fear for my godfather. I didn't care that Voldemort might be manipulating my dreams, nor that I had no back-up and that Darren was stuck in some in-between world he couldn't escape from. If Sirius was in trouble then it was up to me to help him.

Hermione was right behind me and I could tell that she didn't approve of my decision but she came anyway. Most likely because she wanted to make sure that I didn't get myself killed. Not that there was much the pair of us could actually do. Two underage wizards against an army of death eaters and vampaneze. We were probably dead anyway.

In the end I hadn't gone to see Vancha since I hadn't been able to find him nor was I particularly inclined to after the second dream of my godfather. If he really wanted to help he would have to find out from someone who wasn't me.

We were soon standing on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, panting from the long run from the school. Hermione was still shooting me warning looks, but she was also looking at the Forest with trepidation.

"We don't have to do this Harry. We could go back to the school, get some more help, and inform the Order. It makes more sense than running around in here where we'll be picked off by Death Eaters," Hermione panted, looking at me pleadingly. I felt guilty that I was going to ignore her sensible suggestion but Sirius could be dead by now, let alone later.

"Hermione, Sirius is all I have left. You have to understand that I have to do this," I said to her. She opened her mouth but then shook her head.

"Then I'm staying here with you," she said with finality. I smiled at her. It was nice that at least one of my friends were sticking by me. With all the stuff going on with Darren, Ron had been avoiding us and refused to have anything to do with Darren. I hadn't even thought of going to him for help in this, considering he would probably be so far out of the loop that he wouldn't understand what was going on anymore.

We both entered the Forest and were instantly plunged into darkness. I frowned and looked at Hermione who looked just as non-plussed. It seemed that someone was helping Voldemort and taking no chances in letting him be found. This could take a while.

"Are still coming with me?" I asked. Hermione scowled.

"Do you really think I'm going to leave you now? After everything we've been through?" she snapped, annoyed at me. I shrugged. It seemed like a lot of people were leaving me now. Even Dumbledore had been distant lately. She sighed and we started to make our way through the forest, looking for any signs of the Death Eaters camp.

We were still looking hours later when we heard it. A shriek like laughter and a very familiar cry. I looked at Hermione who looked pale.

"Sirius," she whispered and I nodded. We both took off towards where the sound had come from, trying to pinpoint exactly where he was. It didn't take us long to find the camp.

I had never seen so many things in one place. There were the Death Eaters, followed by Werewolves and things which looked like the walking dead. I didn't know what they were but they certainly didn't look friendly. Grouped around the outside of the camp were figures with purple skin, red hair and blood red eyes. The vampaneze. At the centre of the camp were Voldemort and a figure that looked strangely familiar. I looked more closely and suddenly recognised the figure from the night attack. Hermione seemed to as well as she took a sudden breath inwards.

"Harry!" she whispered urgently and I just nodded.

"I know." It was the first time I had seen him clearly and I was surprised at how… _normal_ he looked. Voldemort looked more ghoulish than he did. The man had long pale blonde hair, almost white, with streaks of grey, showing that he had probably been changed, no blooded, later on in his life. He was well muscled with tanned skin and laughter lines beginning to show around his eyes. In fact the only odd thing I could find about this guy was that he was dressed in animal skins and had a crossbow slung over one shoulder. I was fairly certain that Professor Evanna had said that the vampaneze didn't use long range weapons.

The Lord of the Vampaneze didn't look particularly happy as to where he was and I noticed that his hands were balled into fists. Standing in front of him was a woman who, even with one look, I knew was completely crazy. Her hair was a tangled black mess and she was shrieking in delight as she cursed a single figure in the centre of the ring over and over again.

"Sirius!" I almost shouted and Hermione grabbed me, pulling me backwards. "Let me go! We need to get to Sirius!"

"Harry, if we go in there like this, we'll be killed straight away! You need to think Harry!" Hermione said frantically as she struggled to hold on to me. I sent her an angry glare but ceased struggling. It was pointless trying to tell her she was wrong because, in truth, she wasn't. However the damage had already been done.

"Who are you?" a voice snapped out and I turned to see one of the vampaneze glaring down at me, a sword held towards my throat. I gulped knowing that he would kill me faster than I could reach for my wand.

"Trespassers," his friend hissed. They seemed to look at each other for a moment.

"You are foolish to come here little wizard," the first one said, glaring his friend down. "You should leave before a death eater finds you." The vampaneze said 'Death Eater' as if he actually meant the words instead of it being a name. I tried to process what the man had just said. _They were letting us go_? But that made no sense. They were working for Voldemort. I remembered something the Lord had said, about how they were leaving early before the fighting started. Perhaps they weren't as heartless as we had first thought.

"Ah, you found Potter," said another voice behind me. The two vampaneze looked annoyed, flashing looks between them which probably meant that they didn't like Lucius Malfoy any more than we did. "Right on time," Lucius gloated, a sadistic smile on his face. Then he turned to the vampaneze. "Bring them."

We were dragged, surprisingly gently, towards the centre of the ring of Death Eaters. The Vampaneze Lord's eyes widened slightly at the sight of us but his face was guarded; clearly he owned a good poker face. The two vampaneze holding us forced us to our knees and then left. Voldemort scowled at them and they glared right back at him.

"We are servants to our Lord and not to you," the first one spat at him before melting into the crowd of people surrounding us. Lying on the floor close by was Sirius and I desperately wanted to run over to him, to check that he was alright. He didn't look very alive.

"Hello again, Harry," Voldemort hissed, a smile on his pale lips. His voice was just as I remembered; hissing like a snake. I shuddered but didn't break eye contact with him. "You've come at an opportune time. Now you can watch your friends all run and die."

"You won't win," I spat at him. "The Ministry will know we were telling the truth and the rest of the wizarding world will rise up against you." Voldemort looked at me and laughed.

"You think you can defeat me Potter? The Ministry is too busy fighting you and Dumbledore to care about me! And I have been promised victory by someone ten times more powerful than you can hope to compare with!" Voldemort laughed as a peculiar hush descended on the camp.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," a quiet voice interrupted Voldemort's laughter. Voldemort's smile fell and he turned to where the voice had appeared from. I turned to see Darren and (surprisingly) Ron standing in the midst of the Death Eaters. The Death Eaters seemed to be retreating until I realised that the shadows of the Forest were actually _pushing_ them back. Voldemort sneered at him.

"And what would a simple vampire child know of the all-powerful lord of the universe?" he sneered, mockery clear in his tone of voice. Darren just raised an eyebrow, looking unimpressed.

"Nothing other than the fact that he is my father and he'll kill you once he's finished with you. It's nothing personal on his part. It's just the end of the world." Darren shrugged looking uninterested in the conversation. Voldemort's eyes bulged before he laughed.

"Oh, I should have known that another would join this fight! Well, perhaps it's time to see which brother is stronger!" Voldemort laughed. Steve just raised an eyebrow at him behind his back and I wondered if he knew any of this. He had looked pretty shocked when Darren had admitted to his parentage. Ron just looked as confused as I felt.

"Don't you think you need my permission before instigating who fights who? I happen to be a person not your personal pet dog," Steve growled at Voldemort and I got the feeling that Voldemort was treading dangerous ground. He seemed to realise that Steve was not as under his control as he thought.

"This boy is our enemy. It is better if we get rid of him now rather than later," Voldemort said silkily but Steve didn't look convinced.

"I've known Darren longer than I've known you and I was only dragged into this because m…_our_ father didn't give me much of a choice. So let me tell you something My Nose less Freak," Steve growled, rising from the log he had been sitting on. "I am not your slave. I am not your hopelessly devoted servant. I am my own person and I and my people have come to the decision that you are one of the most worthless scum of the universe. Therefore we no longer wish to help you and you no longer have our allegiance. Ergo, you have no control over any of us." Voldemort's face twisted and he gestured to the Death Eaters. Anger clouded his eyes.

"Finish them!" he shrieked. "Finish them all!" After that the world erupted into chaos.

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Darren's POV

It seemed that we had entered the clearing at an opportune moment. Harry and Hermione had been dragged into the centre of the clearing (not roughly but enough to fool the death eaters) and stuck before Voldemort and Steve. I was glad that Steve didn't look particularly happy about this.

When I had revealed myself and Ron, who had been mystified by the entire conversation (not that I could blame him all that much), Steve had looked as confused as Ron in his eyes. He would want an explanation when this whole mess was over but for now he was content on just surviving and telling Voldemort that he would not be following his plans. I had to hold my laughter back at the 'Mr Nose less Freak' comment. However right now was not the moment to be looking back on this.

I had lost sight of Harry and Hermione when the chaos had ensued and instead, I found myself half defending Ron and half battling my way over to where they were last time. Spells and hexes might not work on vampires and vampaneze but they would certainly work on Ron and while I didn't doubt that he was perfectly capable of defending himself, I didn't think Harry would be very pleased if I got his best friend murdered. I didn't need anyone else who hated me.

I finally spotted Harry furiously fighting off about three death eaters at once. I grabbed the back of Ron's robes and dragged him out of the way of a green curse which I had a feeling would have killed him. "They're over there!" I shouted over the noise of battle, pointing toward Harry. Ron nodded and pushed his way through the crowd as I turned back to the knot of death eaters we had been facing. Drawing a blade from its hidden sheath up my arm I grinned.

"So, who's first?"

* * *

Harry's POV

This was probably one of the worst fights I had ever been in. We were far outnumbered and I had no idea where Darren or Ron was. On the bright side, we now had the vampaneze fighting on our side which was a weird turn of events. Off to the side I could see Steve fighting off Lucius Malfoy, while another was taking on Bellatrix Lestrange, whom I knew from her wanted posters. She was shrieking who knows what at the vampaneze who didn't seem bothered by the innumerable Cruciatus curses she was sending at him.

I was standing over Sirius, making sure none of them managed to harm him. We had ascertained that he was still breathing but whether or not he was dying we couldn't tell. He seemed to be out cold and didn't seem to be breathing all that well. I only hoped that he would survive long enough for us to get him some help.

Suddenly, as of out of nowhere, Ron appeared firing a hex at one of the Death Eaters, Crabbe I thought although it was difficult to tell, and jumping in front of Sirius with me. I frowned at him.

"How did you get here?" I asked, shooting a curse at another attacking Death Eater.

"Your vampire friend ran into me asking where you were. When I told him he freaked out and asked me to join him getting you back!" Ron shouted back. I wondered how much courage Ron had had to pluck up to work with Darren considering how much he was wary of the guy.

"Thanks!" I shouted back at him and it was if none of the last year had happened. We were friends again, facing another year with a bunch of people trying to kill us. Nothing new, just the same old thing. Other than perhaps, the involvement of magical creatures this time (unless you count Professor Lupin and Fluffy).

Suddenly Bellatrix appeared. In one hand she held her wand and in the other she held a bloodied knife. I blinked, turning to where her opponent had been. He was lying in a pool of blood with Steve standing over him, something akin to regret and hatred for Bellatrix in his eyes. It didn't escape my notice that the vampaneze she had killed looked barely older than me.

Bellatrix looked completely mad, her dark hair whipping around her head in a tangled mess and her eyes gleaming with a bright light which didn't look quite sane. She shrieked with laughter as she aimed her wand and screamed "Avada Kedavra!" Ron grabbed me and pulled me put of the way of the killing curse. Except the curse hadn't been aimed at me.

The green light hit Sirius with the force of a grenade, flinging him from the ground and against a tree. If he hadn't been dying before, he was certainly dead now. Everything went blank. I couldn't believe it. The last of my family lay dead in the dust and I was alone. Hatred fuelled me forwards, breaking out of Ron's grip. I couldn't see Hermione but I could hear her shouting something. I didn't hear it. The battle was non-existent, the retreating Death Eaters blanked from my mind. All I could see was Bellatrix and her laughing, prideful face. I was going to wipe that expression off of it.

"Crucio!" I screamed at her and she shrieked as the red bolt hit her square in the chest. She dropped to the ground writhing in pain as I repeated the curse, not caring if I killed her. It was almost fun, watching her pay for what she had done to Sirius. Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around me, tugging me away from Bellatrix and dragging me to the ground.

"Let it go," a voice hissed into my ear as I struggled to get out of his grip. But Darren was incredibly strong, probably because he was a vampire, and it was impossible.

"She killed Sirius! She killed him!" I screamed at him, still struggling. Darren grunted as I kicked him in the stomach but didn't loosen his grip.

"Just let it go, Harry. It may hurt now but you still have other left. You still have Hermione and Neville and the Weasely's. You still have your friends. Don't lose sight of that!" I panted with the exertion but Darren's words started to sink in. Even if I didn't have any blood relatives left, I still had my friends who had become my family. The Dursley's even seemed to count. I stopped struggling and Darren let go of me. We were both panting although Darren was probably panting from the battle than keeping me on the ground. A long cut ran up his arm, trickling blood down his sleeve but he didn't seem to notice.

"Better?" Darren asked. I nodded and accepted his hand to pull me to my feet. I glanced around, noticing the distinct lack of people now in the clearing. There was only me, Ron, Hermione, Darren and Steve left, although I wasn't sure how to feel about Steve. He had been on our side in the end, but that didn't stop the memory of him attacking us in the corridor go away. He was currently looking at Darren strangely but I couldn't work out exactly what could be going through his head. Darren just looked tired.

"I suppose we should-" Darren suddenly cut off with a horrible gurgling cry. I stared in horror as he stared back at me; eyes wide open in shock as he fell to his knees. He coughed once, twice, violently, blood spurting from his mouth, down his chin, before finally slumping to the ground. Standing over him was the one person we had forgotten about.

Bellatrix grinned at me, bloody knife still in hand, before disapparating with a shriek of laughter.

* * *

**Please don't kill me. It's longer like I promised!**


	23. The Final Chapter

**I can finally do this: the first proper story I EVER put on Fanfiction, is FINALLY finished. There is no sequel to this. I would have no idea what to do if I did. I hope you enjoy the ending (or don't, but please don't flame me if you don't. Constructive criticism ONLY. I want no hate mail for this ending. i thought it was pretty obvious after a while where it was going).**

**Anyway, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been reading this from day 1, I'm sure your happy to see the end as well as I am, if only to know what I was planning. Also, thanks to everyone who reviewed, I hope you had as much fun as I did and I hope you are able to check out my other stories as well, if you feel so inclined. They won't be very regularly updated, I warn you now. three days to go till Sixth Form. Yay. I'm going to die.**

**So, for one last final time:**

**Disclaimer: For the hell of it, I don't own Darren Shan. Darren Shan does. I don't own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does. I do, however, own this crossover and it's plotline. I don't own the prophecy at the end. Still Rowling's work folks!**

* * *

Harry's POV

It felt as if the world had stopped. Everything had frozen as we stood there, just waiting for some kind of miracle to happen. But not even freezing time would be able to save Darren now. I didn't know much about wounds but from the rapidly spreading pool from his side, I knew there was very little chance of his survival. In the end it wasn't any of us who made the first move.

Steve stepped forward and gently, as if holding a new-born baby, turned him over and cradled him in one arm. The other ripped a piece of cloth from his 'shirt' with aid from his teeth, which he pressed to the wound. Darren just shook his head and placed one hand on Steve's hand.

"It's over," he whispered, blood dribbling down his chin. "It's finally over…"

"What is?" Steve was staring at Darren with a cross between awe, panic and devastation. "What happened to me?"

"It doesn't… doesn't matter anymore. I forgave you a long time ago…" I felt as if I was intruding on a private conversation but I couldn't pull away. From what I could see of Ron and Hermione, they couldn't either. We were all still frozen in the bubble created by Bellatrix Lestrange. Nothing seemed quite real anymore. Sirius was gone. Darren was fading away rapidly. It almost felt as if I were following him.

"Harry…" Darren had one hand stretched out towards me. It was enough to jolt me out of shock for a moment. "Harry… there's something you have to know..."

"What?" I asked breathlessly, trying not to look down, barely able to take it all in.

"Destiny… he can only have what you give him… not the other way around…" Darren's voice was fading but he seemed determined to carry on. "Ask Dumbledore. There is a prophecy… hidden somewhere… ask him…" I nodded and he gave me a faint smile. His eyes then flickered towards Ron and Hermione. It was as if he had given a signal and they were suddenly there. "Thank you… all of you, even you Ron…" Darren's face split into a real smile. "You made me feel _real_ again…" A breeze rustled in the trees and silence descended. And with that Darren closed his eyes and breathed no more.

There was nothing but silence. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the scene. I could hear Hermione sobbing, hear Ron trying to comfort her, could almost _feel_ Steve's bewilderment and pain. In the end we had won. But at great cost.

* * *

Third Person

Steve could do nothing but hold Darren close, even though his heart had stopped and he was at peace. He didn't know what to do. A breeze picked up again as he stared down at the boy's face that he had once called friend and he wondered what he was supposed to do. The only other he knew of who knew that Darren was alive hated him and he wasn't sure if he should even tell Annie about any of this. And the worst part was that he knew, he_ knew_, that there was something more, something he didn't know, that was truly terrible.

For a moment Steve thought he saw a kind of silver hue around Darren's body but it was gone in a blink of an eye. The others were all huddled together; the black haired boy had his eyes shut while the red-head and girl was embracing, lending each other comfort. If something happened they wouldn't notice. And then he felt it: a brush of wind, like a hand-stroke on the back of his neck. Steve twisted around and came face to face with a silvery version of the boy in his arms. But this Darren was different. There were no scars, no pain in his eyes, nothing that might connect them except in looks. In fact, he just looked a little sad.

"Hello Steve," he said.

"Wha-? How?" Steve didn't know what to say. What did you say to your best friend's ghost? Darren just laughed.

"I'm sorry I couldn't meet with you. I'm sorry about a lot of things. But there _is_ something I'm proud of in this life."

"What's that?" Steve asked quietly, clutching Darren's body tighter.

"You. It might have been my fault that your life became so screwed up but in the end, you did the right thing. And in the end I managed to put it right." Darren gave him a dazzling smile that Steve couldn't help returning even as tears finally came to his eyes. "There's just one thing you should know before I go for good," Darren said.

"What's that?" Steve asked curiously, suddenly feeling happier that Darren was happy himself.

"You're one of the last of us. You always have been and always will be my brother, a son of destiny," Darren said, a smile still on his face. Steve felt his heart stop for a moment, realisation taking over. "I trust you to do the right thing." Steve nodded, a new resolve taking up in his heart.

"Darren, Paradise waits for no man," a voice called, seemingly from nowhere. A man appeared, standing next to Darren and grinning at him like a father might. A name from some distant memory floated into Steve's mind. Mr Larten Crepsley.

"I know," Darren said, a mischievous glint appearing in his eyes. "I was just saying goodbye."

"Goodbye is wasted on fools."

"Then maybe I was just saying good luck." And with a last wink at Steve, Darren disappeared forever.

* * *

Harry's POV

In the end, we had to go back up to the castle. Professor Evanna was very calm about the news of Darren's death. She simply turned her head to one side and made a strange sign with her hand. Vancha, on the other hand, was distraught. He took Darren's body from Steve, a look of pure helplessness in his eyes. Then he had turned on Steve.

"This is your fault!" Vancha snapped, Darren's body lying at his feet.

"This was the fault of a madwoman," Steve said calmly, staring off into the distance. He had been like that since Darren had died. I had thought that he was talking to someone just moments after Darren had passed away, but then the moment was gone. In fact, Steve was now looking at Professor Evanna meaningfully. Professor Evanna just nodded.

"We shall leave for Vampire Mountain tonight," Professor Evanna then said, before Vancha could say anything else. "Darren must be honoured in the tradition of your people."

"But if Darren is dead then the prophecy came true," Vancha argued. "The vampire clan is lost." He looked at his feet and Darren's peaceful face miserably, his green eyes full of tears for his fellow prince.

"No." Steve was now looking straight ahead, his eyes full of determination. "Darren overcame Tiny's prophecy and, in his absence, so will I. I will follow you to Vampire Mountain and make peace with your fellow Vampire Princes. It is time this feud ended between the vampires and the vampaneze." Vancha was now staring at Steve and I had to admit, that I was shocked as well. This was a completely different person to the man who had entered the woods with Voldemort. It was as if… but that was impossible right? Hermione looked confused as well. Professor Evanna just nodded.

By the next day, they were gone just as promised. Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson were cancelled until Umbridge descended upon the school for her reign of tyranny. But she was the least of my worries for the moment. A week after Professor Evanna left the school I approached Dumbledore's office with a kind of trepidation. Darren had said that there was a prophecy, something which Dumbledore would be able to tell me. But he had also said that Destiny had no hold over me, only what I gave him… which didn't really make sense in the long run. But I was curious to know what the prophecy was.

I knocked on Dumbledore's door, which opened under my touch. I wondered if the door was now so used to my presence, that it knew who was behind the door before Dumbledore did. Professor Dumbledore just smiled down at me from his desk and beckoned me forward.

"Was there something you wished to ask me Harry?" he said as I took a seat in front of his desk. I bit my lip before coming out with it straight away. Better to ask now than to wonder later.

"Sir… before Darren died he told me there was a prophecy that included me… and that I should ask you about it. What was in that prophecy?" The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes faded slightly as if they knew what was coming would be painful. He sighed and sat back in his chair, stroking his beard thoughtfully.

"Yes, Harry, there was a prophecy which many would think referred to you. I would have to look into it, but I'm sure I can get you a conference with someone who works in the Department of Mysteries."

"Even after all the bad publicity the Ministry is giving you?" I asked, slightly surprised. Considering Fudge was trying to make it out that Dumbledore was after his job that seemed a little far-fetched.

"I still have some supporters Harry," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling. "Or have you forgotten the Order?" I blinked, remembering the time I had spent at number 12 Grimmauld Place over the summer. I wondered how I had never remembered that all year. Dumbledore just smiled in the face of my confusion and waved me away. "Now, while I look into this, I do believe you have lessons to be getting to." I closed the door on Dumbledore's contemplative face as he watched me go.

* * *

Dumbledore was true to his word and a wizened little man turned up in his office the next week with an orb which appeared to be filled with murky fog.

"Now, you must be very careful with it. Prophecies are tricky things to hold since they can be so shocking," the old man said, as he handed it to me.

"Don't you know what it says?" I asked. The man shook his head.

"Only those the prophecy pertains to may hear them." That made me feel a little nervous. What if Darren had been wrong? What if this wasn't about me after all? I didn't have to wait long to find out. A horrible, yet eerily familiar, harsh voice arose from it.

"_The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…" _At that point I nearly dropped the prophecy and handed it quickly back to the old wizard who disappeared with a pop.

Dumbledore was watching me sadly. "Now do you understand why I didn't tell you Harry? Please forgive an old man his mistakes, for I believed that you were not ready for such knowledge but I was persuaded otherwise by those much older and wiser than I." I blinked and stared at the hand which had held the prophecy. At the moment I didn't know what to think. At the moment, I just wanted to get back into the swing of life at Hogwarts.

"If you don't mind sir, I would like to return to lessons…"

* * *

Third Person

Steve looked up at the house, wishing with all his might he could return but, at the same time, knowing he couldn't. There was too much to be done, too much to set right, that it would be a long time before he would be able to come here again. If he stayed now, he would never leave. He watched as a boy raced out of the house ahead of his mother, laughing with her as he raced around the small garden. The boy's grandmother smiled as she helped her daughter with the washing. A happy, normal family. One he hoped he would be able to return to one day. But for now he had to turn away from this scene and enter a world of shadows.

After all, that was what he was born to do.

* * *

**I hope this kinda made sense to lead up to the sixth Harry Potter book. I know everything is in the wrong order, Christmas hasn't arrived yet in this story and the ending of Harry's bit is a bit strange, but it made no sense to have them running to the Ministry now that Sirius is dead before Christmas. let's just sya the prophecy is destroyed in the battle between Auror's and Death Eaters when Voldemort finally comes to collect it :D.**

**Thank you for reading and goodnight (even though it's still afternoon).**


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